On 16 May, BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer participated in the stakeholder roundtable of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in Paris. Together with high-level participants from both sides of the Atlantic, he discussed the priorities for the future work of the TTC in trade and secure supply chains. TTC is a much-needed platform for a high-level EU-US dialogue that goes beyond political cycles – underlined Beyrer. We are happy to see that it has already delivered in substance with the common approach to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Now we need to outline the new areas of cooperation that can lead to concrete outcomes to boost the Transatlantic economy. The EU and US should work together to improve our common security through export controls, energy security, access to raw materials. We need to promote regulatory cooperation and conformity assessment, reducing trade barriers, both in our bilateral trade, but also multilaterally.

BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer met a delegation of Members of the Ukrainian Parliament. It was an opportunity to reiterate our strong condemnation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, discuss the situation on the ground, the needs of the country to rebuild its economy and how European business can help in this respect. Ukraine is setting up a restauration roadmap to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by the war, provide housing and help industries return to the country and reorganise. Sectors that are currently under consideration include energy (gas, oil, hydrogen), information technologies, automotive, raw materials, agriculture and food amongst others. At the same time, finding viable solutions to the transport and logistics problems caused by the closed ports and the congestion at the land borders will remain a key priority. BusinessEurope will continue to maintain close contacts with the Ukrainian Mission to the EU, the government and business representatives in our efforts to support the Ukrainian economy.