The European
Business Summit (EBS) is a mirror of current trends in EU Affairs,
much like the concept of the 'Facebook timeline'. When ten years ago the EBS
panelists were mainly from Western Europe, progressively we have seen a change
towards business people and politicians from Central
Europe. This was especially due to the big EU enlargement of 2004.
This trend however was not very sustainable, because of the economical profile
of these countries.
I also remember five-six years ago
there was a great stir when ArcelorMittal bought the
Belgian steel factories in Belgium.
At the time we noticed many expressions referring to the Indians as the masters
of the leading industry in Wallonia. In that
year at EBS Mr. Mittal was one of the VIP's at the opening ceremony, along with
the President of the European Commission.
After some years have
passed, what is the current trend at EBS 2012? The BRIC countries:
Joao Pedro Taborda of the Brazilian aviation company Embraer explained the
Brazilian investment in the Portuguese economy in one of the panels. The
Russian ambassador to the EU and big energy giants from Russia (like Gazprom) were very
present in the programme as well. A lot of Indians participated in panels, next
to European commissioners and top representatives from the private sector. But
also the Chinese were very present, an outstanding example is Huawei.
Dan LUCA / Brussels
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