- Securing Europe’s Place in a New World Order
ERT gathers in Madrid
Madrid, 17 November 2024: The European Round Table for Industry (ERT) gathers in Madrid today and tomorrow for its annual autumn Plenary Meeting. The meeting is hosted by José-María Álvarez-Pallete, CEO of Telefónica coinciding with the company’s Centenary year. It will bring together leaders from over 50 of Europe’s most significant industrial and technology companies with operations worldwide.
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As significant employers, innovators and investors in European regions, these bi-annual meetings are the opportunity for ERT Members* to address the most pressing issues on the European economic and societal agenda .
The ERT Plenary is chaired by ERT Chair, Jean-François van Boxmeer (also Chairman of Vodafone Group). This evening, the group will meet with Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament. Tomorrow, the high level forum will be addressed by His Majesty King Felipe VI. A press release outlining the substance and outcome of the meeting will be issued tomorrow afternoon.
As a forum of the top European business leaders covering all sectors of industrial and technological activity, ERT’s focus is on the long-term economic and industrial outlook for Europe, and reversing the EU’s declining competitiveness in the years ahead.
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Note to Editors:
A full list of the membership of ERT is accessible here: https://ert.eu/members/
We are delighted to be in Madrid for this meeting – in the context of Telefonica’s 100th anniversary. The events of the past weeks and months have reminded us how urgent the challenges we face are: extreme climate, energy transition, industrial transformation in a world of increasingly unpredictable geopolitics. With this backdrop, working alongside the EU institutions and Member States, ERT’s top priority it to help restore Europe’s competitiveness and to extract its full potential from the unfinished project that is the Single Market. We look forward to discussing the rapid implementation of the Draghi & Letta Reports that provide the necessary roadmap, and the impetus provided by EU Heads of Government through their Budapest Declaration.
It is an honor to host the representatives of the ERT in Madrid at an extraordinary moment, such as Telefónica's centenary. At a critical time for Europe, this Plenary is a great opportunity to jointly address the challenge of the urgent digital and sustainable transition, with connectivity as the cornerstone of competitiveness and strategic autonomy to regain European leadership. This path must be traveled decisively, with the values that defend the progress and welfare of citizens and without asymmetries with the rest of the world. This is undoubtedly one of the great challenges we face, together with talent and employability. Reskilling is a task that must involve us all, because the greatest challenge for industry in particular, and for society as a whole, is people.