From B7 to G7: Business sets priorities for growth and resilience

Ahead of next week's G7 Leaders' Summit, our President Fredrik Persson and Director General Markus J. Beyrer joined business leaders from across the G7 at the B7 Summit in Paris, organised by our French member federation MEDEF. Discussions focused on trade and supply chain security, economic resilience, and the green and digital transitions.

President Persson stressed that Europe can address many of the structural challenges it faces, and the time to act is now. Important progress has been made but ambition must now translate into tangible results that companies can feel on the ground.

To put the European economy back on track, swift and substantive action is needed to deepen the Single Market, reduce regulatory burden, bring down energy prices, and secure market access.

Persson also underlined that trade and industrial policies can no longer be treated separately. Growing competitiveness pressures are driving domestic preference measures and trade defence actions, across the G7 and beyond.

"More assertive approaches on industrial policy must be counter-balanced with openness. Let’s not fool ourselves – no country will be able to achieve full sovereignty over all critical supply chains. We will continue to rely on each other, developing partnerships that are mutually beneficial, tackling dependences that could be weaponised against us", Persson highlighted.

In a roundtable on the economic challenges arising from geopolitical crises, Director General Markus J. Beyrer stressed that businesses need stability, predictability and coordinated action. Free trade remains the answer, provided it is fair, rules-based and effectively enforced.