The Brussels Business Page #6

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However, all that went

on in complete secrecy.

ERT and the European

Commission work hand in hands.

In 1984. 'Missing links'

was published.

And immediately after the European

Commission sets up a working group ...

... with ERT, on

exactly this topic.

In January 1985. Wise

Dekker, CEO of Philips, ...

... presents his

'Europe 1990' ...

... and his action plan

for the single market.

10 days later, Jacques Delors, new

president of the European Commission ...

... gave a speech about the single

market in the European Parliament ...

... which sounds like the

echo of Dekker speech.

In June 1985. the Lord Caulfield,

Vice-President of the Commission ...

... published his famous

single market 'White Paper'.

Copy/Paste

of Dekker plan.

Every 6 months there

was an EU summit.

And every 6 months the ER met. Just a few days before.

Location and date

were kept confidential.

The booking was made

two years in advance.

They met at that

level twice a year.

One of them took on

responsibility of ...

... arranging the meeting.

So often they would meet

in some fairly nice place.

We met once in the

opera house in Milan.

We met in a big

museum in Germany.

We met in Royal

Palace in London.

And they were arranged

for the Prime Minister or ...

... Foreign minister

or whoever ...

... to come and talk.

Sometimes it was

very impressive.

When everybody was struggling

to join the single currency, ...

... I can to this day remember

the Finance Minister of Spain ...

... when there was a

general elections, he said, ...

... 'Dont bother. Whoever

wins this general election ...'

'... Spain will do

whatever is necessary.'

It's a terrible

strong message.

He felt able to speak for

the other parties as well ...

... because he knew

that Spain is determined.

That kind of things

is very impressive.

We talked to a

French Prime Minister ...

... who had a lot of doubts

about world free trade.

One of our people,

may have been Norwegian.

Somebody who wouldnt normally

get mauch of a chance to talk ...

... to a French Prime

Minister, he said, ...

... 'You've got to do this, Prime Minister.

You've got to be a part of this ...'

'... free trade

movement.'

And then one of the German

chemical people spoke up ...

... and said the same thing.

'We need free trade.'

'European business

need free trade.'

'France must

not block it.'

And I dont think that the French

Prime Minister took that seriously.

Because no

French businessman ...

... would talk to him

in those terms. Well, ...

... I think it's important to see

that the ERT was club ...

... of top businessman

and it operated as a club.

There were no delegates,

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