On this page - Keynote Address & Handover | Joint Session with the EU & Japanese Authorities | Announcement of the next BRT Chair, EU-side | The BRT's 2023 Recommendations | Cuttings, articles and social media posts about the meeing | Other documents from the meeting
07/11/2023 - The 25th Annual Meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table took place in the Schuman Room at the European Commission's Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels.
The meeting was co-chaired (for the final time) by Philippe Wahl (Chairman & CEO, La Poste Groupe) and (for the first time) by Nobuhiro Endo (Executive Advisor, NEC Corporation). Nikolaus Boltze (Country Representative - Japan, Thyssenkrupp AG) and Jean-Paul Forceville (Director, European & International Relations, La Poste Groupe) moderated some sessions of the meeting. During the meeting, Mr Wahl announced that his successor as BRT EU-side Chair would be Belén Garijo (Chair of the Executive Board and CEO, Merck).
Links to articles, posts, social media references and other resources can be found on the 2023 annnual meeting cuttings & tweets webpage.
After an opening session, featuring interventions by the BRT co-Chairs Philippe Wahl (Chairman and CEO, La Poste Groupe) and Nobuhiro Endo (Executive Advisor, NEC Corporation), European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová gave the keynote address. Nikolaus Boltze (thyssenkrupp AG) moderated the keynote address session.
After her speech, Mr Boltze and Dr. Endo formally presented the BRT's 2023 recommendations to VP Jourová who received them on behalf of the European Commission
Her speech and the "handover" were reported in a photo montage on the European Commission website entitled, "Participation of Vera Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission, to the EU-Japan Business Round Table"
Kiyoto Tsuji, State Minister for Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Nobuhiro Yoshida, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI), Hiroshi Yoshida, Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination (MIC) and Kerstin Jorna, Director-General (DG GROW) took part in a Joint Session with the EU and Japanese Authorities, outlining recent developments in EU-Japan government-to-government discussions and areas for possible EU-Japan industrial cooperation.
The 2023 BRT annual meeting was the 4th and final one to be co-chaired by Philippe Wahl. During his opening remarks he announced that his successor as BRT EU-side Chair would be Belén Garijo, Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck. Ms Garijo was unable to attend the meeting in-person but recorded a message accepting the nomination.
Video message from Belén Garijo (6'20")
In her personal video message, Belén Garijo addresses the participants of the 25th EU-Japan Business Round Table in Brussels on 7 November 2023. She shares how honoured she feels to take on the responsibility as the new EU-side Chair of the EU-Japan Business Round Table, thanks her predecessor Philippe Wahl for his strong leadership and highlights how much she looks forward to collaborating with Dr. Nobuhiro Endo, NEC Corporation and the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation. As the CEO of Merck, a science and technology company with a long history of business in Japan, Belén Garijo underscores the importance of EU-Japan collaboration in times of growing uncertainty.
The BRT adopted - and submitted - 5 sets of recommendations:
The EU-Japan Centre currently produces 5 newsletters :
Joint venture established in 1987 by the European Commission (DG GROW) and the Japanese Government (METI) for promoting all forms of industrial, trade and investment cooperation between the EU and Japan.
