OREANDA-NEWS. December 07, 2010. Today Berlin hosted the 23rd meeting of the European Business Congress (EBC) Presiding Committee headed by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, President of the EBC.

In 2010 the EBC had been joined by 23 companies, and a number of other organizations expressed their willingness to become members of the Congress.

In accordance with the meeting agenda, the participants heard reports by Chairpersons of Working Committees and discussed the progress with the projects financially supported by the EBC. The Presiding Committee endorsed the Congress budget for 2011 and selected a central theme for the next EBC General meeting: “Environmental Challenges and Energy Sector”, to be held in Prague on June 2–3.
Background

The European Business Congress (EBC) is an international non-governmental non-profit organization. At present, the EBC comprises 119 companies, banks and associations from 21 OSCE member states, including such prominent corporations and banks as Gazprom, ExxonMobil, Daimler, Siemens, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Total, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, J. P. Morgan Bank International, Alcatel, Wintershall, E.ON Ruhrgas, GDF SUEZ, ENI, Enel, BNP Paribas, UBS, Royal Boskalis Westminster, The Royal Bank of Scotland, KPMG, Societe Generale, Statoil, Renaissance Capital, etc.

The supreme body of the EBC is the General Meeting. The Presiding Committee comprised of 36 members exercises general management. Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee is President of the EBC. The 9-member Board of Executive Directors is in charge of executive management.

The Congress deals with practical issues of economic cooperation in Europe and brings forward proposals on how to remove obstacles and create favorable conditions for conducting entrepreneurial activities in an efficient and safe way. The EBC performs its work through seven Working Committees: Energy; Industry and Construction; Law, Banking and Finance; Information and Communication; Ecology and Healthcare; Human Resources, Education and Science; Business Security.

In 2010 the EBC Working Committees triggered several social initiatives and developed recommendations for relevant entities in OSCE member states. In particular, the Law, Banking and Finance Working Committee headed by Andrey Kruglov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee developed recommendations for improving the regulatory framework of banking supervision and risk management with a view to reducing the cost of bank credit instruments. The Committee's recommendations duly approved by the Presiding Committee members were forwarded to the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities and to the Chairman of the Basel Committee.