- Securing Europe’s Place in a New World Order
Europe’s corporate leaders gear up to meet Europe’s Competitiveness challenge: harnessing security and the Single Market
- CEOs & Chairs of Europe’s major companies meet with Draghi
- ERT announces revision of its work to reflect changing geopolitical circumstances and priorities of the new von der Leyen Commission
Rome, 19 May 2025: The European Round Table for Industry (ERT) met in Rome for its annual spring plenary, hosted by Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni and chaired by ERT Chair, Jean-François van Boxmeer. The meeting brought together the CEOs and Chairs of major European companies¹ covering all sectors of industry and technology.
The gathering was honoured with interventions from former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Central Bank, Professor Mario Draghi, the Rt Hon. Guido Crosetto, Minister of Defence of Italy and General Luciano Portolano, Chief of the Defence Staff of Italy. The themes under discussion included industrial growth, technological innovation and the growing role of space and defence.
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Dialogue with Draghi
ERT is a longstanding voice for European competitiveness and a vocal proponent of the Draghi Report released last September. The results of a survey of the corporate leaders in the organisation were released at the last ERT Plenary (in November), in which over 80% said that if the report’s recommendations were fully implemented², they would give priority to investing in the EU within three years.
Since its launch, the Draghi Report has heavily informed the second von der Leyen Commission’s agenda, providing a map to navigate rapidly increasing changes in the geopolitical landscape. The Commission’s Competitiveness Compass and Prof. Draghi’s emphatic call ‘Do Something!’ at a Parliamentary hearing in February underlined the urgent need for swift implementation. The announcement of the Clean Industrial Deal in February and Germany’s change in stance on fiscal and defence policies also reflect positive momentum towards the kind of transformative change advocated by the Draghi Report.
Today’s encounter in Rome was an opportunity for further exchange on how the report has landed in the different EU Member States, the recommendations supported by a broad swathe of national governments and some of the trickier aspects such as financing and competition policy reform.
Overhaul in ERT structure
The meeting also advanced a revision of the focus of ERT’s work, to align with the priorities of the EU institutions. In light of the shift in globalisation, the resurgence of defence and security as an imperative and renewed focus on the EU’s own resilience, a significant regearing of the Committees and Working Groups within the organisation was needed. Some changes are also driven by the fact that competitiveness now a firm part of the new EU mandate, as the Commission seeks to implement the Letta and Draghi reports.
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Each focus area has a working group of company representatives, overseen by a Committee of ERT Members (CEOs & Chairs), with two Co-Chairs.
The new focus areas of ERT are:
- Energy Transition & Clean Industry
- Industrial & Competition Policy
- Investment & Tax
- R&D, Innovation & Skills
- Security, Defence & Dual Use
- Single Market Completion & Simplification
- Tech, AI & Data
- Trade & Economic Security
This new suite of focus areas will be in rolled out on the ERT website in the coming weeks.
This ERT Plenary also brought changes to the Steering Committee of ERT, welcoming Michel Demaré (AstraZeneca), Christel Heydemann (Orange), Patrick Pouyanné (TotalEnergies) and Claudio Descalzi (Eni).
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Note to Editors:
¹ The names of the ERT Members in attendance at the meeting in Rome are in the PDF of this release available here. A full list of the membership of ERT is accessible https://ert.eu/members/
² Full details of the press release of those survey results from November 2024 are available here:
https://ert.eu/documents/surveyh22024/
About the European Round Table for Industry (ERT)
The European Round Table for Industry (ERT) is a forum that brings together around 60 Chief Executives and Chairs of leading multinational companies of European parentage, covering a wide range of industrial and technological sectors. ERT strives for a strong, open and competitive Europe, with the EU and its Single Market as a driver for inclusive growth and sustainable prosperity. Companies of ERT Members have combined revenues exceeding €2 trillion, providing direct jobs to around 5 million people worldwide – of which half are in Europe – and sustaining millions of indirect jobs. They invest more than €60 billion annually in R&D, largely in Europe.
The past six months have seen activity to address the competitiveness challenge across many fronts: Clean Industrial Deal, simplification, the forthcoming Single Market strategy and the defence imperative. Against a backdrop of evolving external uncertainties, we need to see a rapid acceleration in efforts by the Commission and the EU Member States. We need a new era of enhanced cooperation between EU Member States – there is no time to waste.
With the second von der Leyen Commission now firmly in place and a significant shift evident in the priorities of this EU mandate, it was time to revise our committees and working groups. Through this exercise, we have sought to better connect the dots between the overarching goals and the different workstreams of the EU institutions and evolving geopolitical circumstances. In addition, bringing in a new system of Co-Chairs ensures our work is always led by a cross-sectoral consensus – and the creation of dedicated Committees for Single Market Completion & Simplification and Security, Defence & Dual Use is timely.