Photo from the 1st BRT meeting in 1999 – (left to right) BRT co-Chairs Tadahiro Sekimoto & Étienne Davignon greet European Commission President Romano Prodi

The 25th annual meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table (or "BRT") will take place in Brussels on 7 November. 

The meeting will bring together EU and Japanese business leaders and representatives of the EU and Japanese Authorities to discuss issues of common interest. This will be the final meeting co-chaired by Philippe Wahl (Chairman & CEO, La Poste Groupe) and the first meeting co-chaired by Nobuhiro Endo (Executive Advisor, NEC Corporation).

This annual dialogue reviews recent developments in EU-Japan government-to-government and industrial relations and examines areas for potential future EU-Japan action both in the EU/Japan and in third markets. The meeting will feature in-depth discussions of the possibilities for EU-Japan cooperation on 'Economic Security & Supply Chains'; on the 'Green Transition'; on 'Standardisation & Regulatory Harmonisation, R&D and Skills'; and on 'Digital & AI'. 
Senior representatives of the European Commission and Japanese Ministries of Foreign Affairs; Economy, Trade & Industry; and Internal Affairs & Communication will take part in the meeting. During the meeting, the BRT will adopt its 2023 set of recommendations to the EU and Japanese Authorities and will submit them to the Commission. A report on the meeting will be published in December's EU-Japan NEWS.