AeA Chairman and CEO Discuss EU Competitiveness Strategy with EU Officials During Annual Visit to Brussels

December 14 - 15, 2005

  Information II Pictures II AeA Contact II AeA Europe Executive Committee 

AeA Chairman John V. Harker and AeA President & CEO William T. Archey traveled to Brussels on December 14-15, 2005, for meetings with European Commission officials, European High-Tech Trade Association leaders, and the Executive Committee of AeA Europe. 

The discussions with Fabio Colasanti, Director General for Information Society, Peter Carl, Director General for External Trade, and Gerard de Graaf, Head of Unit for Internal Market Strategy and Competitiveness, focused on the effort by the European Commission to re-energize its "Lisbon Strategy" to become the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. Many AeA Member companies are well-positioned in Europe to benefit from a more competitive European Union, but it is not clear that this effort will be more successful than similar strategies rolled out over the last 20 years. 

All of these officials spoke of a more urgent need for growth and jobs, especially with China looming on the horizon as a competitive threat. At the same time, they identified numerous hurdles to achieving their competitiveness goals. For example, improved competitiveness must include environmental sustainability and maintenance of social programs. In the area of technology, which will play a key role in their competitiveness strategy, they must deal with policy issues related to environment, privacy, security, and software patents that impact growth in the technology sector.

In meetings with leaders of the European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations (EICTA), and the Japan Business Council in Europe (JBCE), Mr. Harker praised their cooperation with AeA Europe on environment issues and urged the groups to cooperate on a range of other issues in light of the challenges related to the EU competitiveness strategy. 

For more information contact:

Robert J. Mulligan Biography
Senior Vice President International 
rob_mulligan@aeanet.org
202.682.4452

James Lovegrove Biography 
AeA Europe Managing Director
James_Lovegrove@aeanet.org
011-32-2-502-7015

View a full listing of the AeA Europe's Committee members.

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