Étienne Davignon

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Étienne Davignon (2011)

Étienne Davignon (born October 4, 1932 in Budapest , Hungary ) is a Belgian politician and businessman. He was Vice President of the European Commission and is Honorary President of the Bilderberg Conference . He became known in particular through the Davignon Report , which proposed the establishment of European Political Cooperation in 1970 .

Career

Etienne Davignon initially studied law, philosophy and economics in Brussels and Leuven before joining his country's diplomatic service in Africa as an attaché in 1959. In 1964, in the government of the socialist Paul-Henri Spaak , he became head of cabinet in the Belgian Foreign Ministry. He retained this position during the tenure of the Belgian Foreign Minister and later Prime Minister Pierre Harmel . He was involved in drafting the Harmel report on the future of NATO , which initiated the policy of détente between the military blocs. In 1970, as committee chairman of the political directors of the European Economic Community, he presented the “ Davignon Report ” on the further development and political unification of the European Communities , in which he proposed an information and consultation mechanism in the field of foreign policy for the then six states. In 1973 he played an important role for his country at the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Helsinki .

At the beginning of the first oil crisis , he was appointed the first President of the International Energy Agency in 1974. He held this office until 1977. From 1977 to 1985 Davignon was a member of the European Commission as Commissioner for Internal Market , Administration of the Customs Union and Industrial Affairs. In this capacity, Davignon was largely responsible for the steps taken by the Coal and Steel Community to resolve the steel crisis . From 1981 to 1985 Davignon was Vice President of the European Commission. At the height of the Flemish-Walloon conflict , he did not accept the offer of his Christian-social party PSC (today cdH ) to lead in Brussels.

After the end of his political career in 1989, Davignon joined the board of directors of Société Générale de Belgique (SGB), chaired the Round Table of European Industrialists (ERT) and chaired Union Minière , a traditional Belgian mining company owned by SGB, which is part of the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Davignon is vice-president of the hotel operator Accor and of the SGB-affiliated energy supplier Tractebel , acted as vice-president of the Luxembourg steel producer Arbed and Fortis Bank Belgium . He was a member of the supervisory boards of Anglo American , Fiat , of the Franco-Belgian utility Suez , which merged with the Belgian bank SGB, the German chemical company BASF , the Belgian chemical company Solvay , the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Gilead Sciences , the British chemical company Imperial Chemical Industries , Pechiney , the foam manufacturers Foamex and Recticel , the consulting company Kissinger Associates, the investment company Sofina and the Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB). After the bankruptcy of the Belgian aviation company Sabena at the end of 2001, Davignon successfully supported the founding of the successor company SN Brussels Airlines .

Since 1991 Davignon has been President of the Association pour l'union monétaire en Europe , Chairman of the Fondation Paul Henri Spaak and President of the Royal Institute for International Relations and President of the Brussels think tanks Friends of Europe (FoE) (Les amis de l'Europe) and of the Egmont Institute .

Davignon has participated in the annual meetings of the Bilderberg Conference since 1974 , of which he became President in 2005. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Ditchley Foundation . In 2004 he received the honorary title of Minister of State, which secured him a seat on the Belgian Privy Council .

Others

Étienne Davignon's grandfather Julien Davignon was Belgium's foreign minister when the First World War broke out in 1914 .

In 2012 he worked as a contemporary witness in the documentary “ The Brussels Business - Who controls the European Union? " With. His statements were based on his experience as Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry from 1977 to 1985 and as a member of the European Round Table from 1986 to 2001.

honors and awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Etienne Davignon delivers the plenary address on the third day of EITC 97 . European Union Publications Office. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  2. ↑ BBC interview with Étienne Davignon about his work for the Bilderberg Commission , September 29, 2005
  3. ↑ Commitment to better living and working conditions ( Memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

literature

  • Etienne Davignon , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 37/1992 from August 31, 1992, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
  • Nollert, Michael: Corporate links in Western Europe. National and transnational networks of companies, supervisory boards and managers, Münster: LIT. 2005.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Davignon, Etienne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian politician and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest , Hungary