Deauville (France) today hosted the opening of the XI Annual General Meeting of the European Business Congress (EBC). Over 260 representatives of 70 companies and organizations from 21 OSCE member states are participating in the Meeting. A Gazprom delegation is headed by Alexey Miller, the Company’s Management Committee Chairman, EBC’s President.

Speaking at the plenary session of the EBC General Meeting Alexey Miller underscored that the European Business Congress was gaining ever more importance among European international organizations. During the years of operation the Congress had shaped an open platform for a dialogue between business, authorities and science thus enabling to draw the attention of the international community to the global issues.

Alexey Miller pointed out that EBC’s evaluations and forecasts formulated as recommendations for the governments of the OSCE member states fostered progressive changes in the European economic environment. The EBC Working Committees develop comprehensive projects in such areas as energy, water resources and environment. For example, the Energy Efficiency XXI project implemented under the aegis of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and aimed at creating the conditions for energy conservation in more than 25 countries worldwide.

According to the EBC President, the efforts of the Congress should be focused in the short-term on broadening the scope of activities and further developing a multilateral dialogue with political, public & scientific institutes and international organizations.

On June 11 the EBC General Meeting will host meetings of the Working Committees for Law, Banking and Finance to be moderated by Andrey Kruglov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee, Head of the Company’s Finance and Economics Department and for Business Security to be moderated by Sergey Khomyakov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee.

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The European Business Congress (EBC) comprises 110 companies from 21 OSCE member states including such prominent corporations and banks as Gazprom, ExxonMobil, Daimler Chrysler, Siemens, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Total, Deutsche Bank , Dresdner Bank, Alcatel, Wintershall, E.ON Ruhrgas, Gaz de France and others. The EBC Secretariat is headquartered in Berlin. EBC publishes its bulletin in English and Russian on a quarterly basis.

EBC’s supreme body is the General Meeting. The 35-member Presiding Committee exercises general management. The EBC President is Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee. The 9-member Board of Executive Directors is responsible for executive management.

EBC deals with economic cooperation issues on the European continent and brings forward proposals on building a safe and favorable environment for entrepreneurial activities. EBC operates through seven Working Committees for: Energy; Industry and Construction; Law, Banking and Finance; Information and Communications; Ecology and Healthcare; Human Resources, Education and Science; Business Security.