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The direction and focus of Friends of Europe's activities is decided in conjunction with the President, his Praesidium and our Board of Trustees.

Friends of Europe : Friends of Europe mourns the unexpected death of its Trustee and former EU-Commissioner Karel van Miert
23/06/2009 Read more

Viscount Etienne Davignon

Viscount Etienne Davignon is Vice-Chairman of SUEZ-TRACTEBEL, Director of SN Brussels Airlines and Chairman of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He is also Chairman of the Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) and a member of the board of the Royal Sporting Club d'Anderlecht.

In 1959, Davignon joined the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was Head of Cabinet for Ministers Spaak (Socialist) and Harmel (Christian-Democrat). During his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was directly involved with Belgium's policies in Africa, the independence of Ruanda and Burundi and the solution to the Belgian and Zaïre conflict. He was also a key figure behind the report on the future of the Atlantic Alliance (Harmel report) and he presided the committee which prepared the first proposals regarding political co-operation between EEC members (Davignon report) in 1974-1975.

Following the oil crisis in 1973, Davignon chaired the International Conference which established an oil sharing treaty. From 1974 to 1977, he was the first President of the International Energy Agency , which had been created in 1974.

After leaving the civil service in 1977, Davignon was appointed Vice President of the European Commission in charge of industry, research and energy where he stayed until 1984. During this period he was active in the restructuring of European industry (steel, textiles, synthetic fibres) and promoting new research co-operative ventures in Information Technology and Telecommunication (Esprit, Race). He negotiated key agreements with the US, Japan and China.

In the beginning of 1985 he joined Société Générale de Belgique, Belgium's leading holding company of which he became Chairman on April 11, 1989 and Vice-Chairman on February 28, 2001. Since October 31, 2003 he has served as Vice-Chairman of Suez-Tractebel.

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	Michel Barnier	Michel Barnier is France’s Minister for Agriculture. He was previously France’s Foreign Affairs Minister and European Commissioner for Regional Policy and Institutional Reform.
	Carl Bildt	Carl Bildt is the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Balkans and Sweden’s Prime Minister in the early nineties.
	Laurens Jan Brinkhorst	Laurens Jan Brinkhorst is the former Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Affairs. He has also been an MEP and a Director General at the European Commission.
	Pat Cox	Pat Cox is the President of the European Movement International, currently on a sabbatical until the end of the next Lisbon Treaty referendum in Ireland and the former President of the European Parliament. He is on the advisory board for Microsoft and APCO.
	Jean-Luc Dehaene	Jean-Luc Dehaene is Chairman of the Board of Dexia and a former Prime Minister of Belgium. He served as the Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe and is Vice Chairman of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with China.
	Anna Diamantopoulou	Anna Diamantopoulou is a Member of the Greek Parliament and a former EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs.
	Elisabeth Guigou	Elisabeth Guigou is Vice-President of the French National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of the Delegation to the EU. She is a former Minister for EU Affairs.
	Daniel Janssen	Baron Daniel Janssen is the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Solvay and a member of the Steering Committee of the Trilateral Commission.
	Jean-Pierre Jouyet	Jean-Pierre Jouyet is Chairman of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) and was formerly French Secretary of State in charge of European Affairs.
	Pascal Lamy	Pascal Lamy is Director General of the World Trade Organization and a former European Commissioner for Trade.
	Mario Monti	Mario Monti is a former EU Competition Commissioner for and is now President of the Università Bocconi and Chairman of the Board of the Brussels European and Global Economic Laboratory (BRUEGEL).
	Jacek Saryusz-Wolski	Jacek Saryusz-Wolski is Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He is a former Polish Minister for European Affairs.
	Guy Verhofstadt	Guy Verhofstadt is a former Prime Minister of Belgium. He is the author of The United States of Europe which has been published in six languages.

	Edmond Alphandéry	Edmond Alphandéry is President of the Supervisory Board of CNP Assurances. He is a former Minister of the Economy of France.
	Enrique Barón Crespo	Enrique Barón Crespo is a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs in the European Parliament. He is a former President of the Parliament.
	Joachim Bitterlich	Joachim Bitterlich is Executive Vice President of Veolia Environnement in Paris. He was formerly Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl and German Ambassador to NATO and then Spain.
	Elmar Brok	Elmar Brok is a member of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.
	John Bruton	John Bruton is Head of the European Commission Delegation in Washington D.C. He was Prime Minister of Ireland’s Rainbow Coalition government in the mid-nineties.
	Günter Burghardt	Günter Burghardt was Head of the European Commission Delegation to Washington D.C.
	Robert Cox	Robert Cox is a former Senior Advisor to the European Community’s Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and former Commission Representative to Turkey.
	Philippe de Schoutheete	Baron Philippe de Schoutheete was for many years Belgium’s Permanent Representative to the EU.
	Franz Fischler	Franz Fischler was formerly European Commissioner for Agriculture and Fisheries and before that was the Austrian Minister for Agriculture and Forestry.
	Monica Frassoni	Monica Frassoni is Co-President of the Greens/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament.
	Catherine Gernay	Catherine Gernay is the Managing Director of CEN-SCK (Centre d’études sur le Nucléaire).
	Elisabeth Guigou	Elisabeth Guigou is Vice-President of the French Delegation to the EU at the French National Assembly and was the Minister for Justice in the cabinet of Lionel Jospin. She later became Minister for Labour in the same cabinet.
	Sandra Kalniete	Sandra Kalniete was formerly Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Commissioner in charge of Agriculture and Fisheries.
	Wim Kok	Wim Kok is The Netherlands' former Prime Minister. He chaired the High-Level Working Group on the Lisbon Strategy in 2004. He was also a Dutch Minister for Finance and an adviser to the European Commission.
	Horst Günter Krenzler	Horst Günter Krenzler was Director General for External Relations of the European Commission.
	Vytautas Landsbergis	Vytautas Landsbergis is a Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament. He is a former President of Lithuania.
	Spiro Latsis	Spiro Latsis is President of EFG Eurobank.
	Erkki Liikanen	Erkki Liikanen is the Governor of the Bank of Finland. He is a former European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society.
	Robert Manchin	Robert Manchin is Chairman and Managing Director of Gallup Europe.
	Erika Mann	Erika Mann is a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade.
	Stefano Micossi	Stefano Micossi is Director General of ASSONIME, and was formerly Director General for Industry in the European Commission.
	John Monks	John Monks is Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
	Riccardo Perissich	Riccardo Perissich was formerly Director General for Industry in the European Commission.
	Alojz Peterle	Alojz Peterle is a Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament. He is a former Prime Minister of Slovenia.
	Paul Révay	Paul Révay is the European Director of the Trilateral Commission.
	Keith Richardson	Keith Richardson was Secretary General of the European Roundtable of Industrialists.
	Michel Rocard	Michel Rocard is a former Prime Minister of France and was also an MEP.
	Javier Solana	Javier Solana is the EU’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. He was previously Secretary General of NATO and before that Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.
	Dirk Sterckx	Dirk Sterckx is Chairman of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with China. He is a former TV news anchorman.
	Frans van Daele	Frans Van Daele is Permanent Representative of Belgium to NATO. He previously served as Belgium's Ambassador to the United States.

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Friends of Europe is privileged to be headquartered in and enjoy the use of one of Brussels' most prestigious architectural landmarks, the 100 year old Bibliothèque Solvay in the Parc Léopold next to the European Parliament.

The building houses the Friends of Europe team and hosts almost all of the think-tank's events in Brussels.