Étienne Davignon

Viscount Etienne Davignon ( born October 4, 1932 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Belgian politician and businessman. He was Vice- President of the European Commission and is the Honorary Chairman of the Bilderberg Conference. He became known in particular by the Davignon report, who in 1970 proposed the establishment of European Political Cooperation.

Career

Davignon studied in Brussels and Leuven first law, philosophy and economics before he entered the diplomatic service of his country in Africa as attaché in 1959. In the government of the Socialist Paul -Henri Spaak, he became in 1964 Head of Cabinet of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He remained in this function also during the tenure of the Belgian Foreign Minister Pierre Harmel government and later. He was involved in the drafting of the Harmel Report on the future of NATO, which launched the policy of detente between the military blocs. In 1970, he put as Chairman of the Committee of Political Directors of the European Economic Community before the " Davignon Report " for further development and political unification of the European Communities, in which he proposed an information and consultation mechanism in the field of foreign policy of the then six countries. In 1973, he played an important role for his country at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki.

At the beginning of the first oil crisis in 1974, he was appointed the first president of the International Energy Agency. He held this position until 1977. Between 1977 and 1985, Davignon as Commissioner for the Internal Market, administration of the customs union and industrial affairs member of the European Commission. In this capacity, Davignon was instrumental in charge of the steps of the ECSC for the settlement of the steel crisis. From 1981 to 1985, Davignon acts as Vice- President of the European Commission. The range of his Christian Social Party (PSC today cdH ) at the peak of the Flemish- Walloon conflict for guidance in Brussels, he did not accept.

After the end of his political career in 1989 Davignon joined the Board of Directors of Société Générale de Belgique ( SGB), presided at the Round Table of European Industrialists ( ERT) and the Union sat Minière ago, a traditional Belgian mining company owned by the SGB, which in the Congolese province of Katanga operates. Davignon is vice president of the hotel operator Accor and when connected to the SGB, Belgian utility company Tractebel, served as Vice President of the Luxembourg steel producer Arbed and Fortis Belgium. He is a board member of the Anglo American Mining, the Italian automaker Fiat, the Franco-Belgian utility Suez, of the Belgian bank SGB merged, the German chemical giant BASF, the Belgian salt and chemical producer Solvay, Gilead, the British chemical giant Imperial Chemical Industries, Pechiney, Foamex, Sofina, Recticel and CMB. After the bankruptcy of the Belgian airline Sabena end of 2001, Davignon successfully advocated for the creation of the successor company SN Brussels Airlines.

Since 1991, Davignon 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.

Since 1974, Davignon attends the annual meeting of the Bilderberg conference, its president in 2005. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Ditchley Foundation. On 26 January 2004, he received the honorary title of Minister of State, which secures him a seat in the Belgian royal council. 2000 Davignon was awarded the Hans Boeckler price.

Already his grandfather Julien Davignon was in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, Foreign Minister of Belgium.

Others

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