Large Firms and the Transformation of EU Business Associations: a Historical Perspective

When examining the effectiveness of EU business associations, one must ask ‘which associations?’ There are, of course, the traditional associations found in Brussels since late 1950s — the ‘associations of associations’ model. UNICE, whose membership includes the national industry associations, is a classic example of such an association. Yet, today one finds many different kinds of business groups: direct-firm associations (e.g. the EU Committee of AmCham), ‘mixed’ associations comprised of associations and individual firms (e.g. CEFIC), Chief Executive Officer (CEO) organisations (e.g. the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT)), and ad-hoc organisations (usually comprised of companies) whose purpose and existence may change based on the policy issue at hand (e.g. the ENERG-8). In recent years, one can also find EU business associations that are actually transatlantic or global in membership (e.g. the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) and the Global Business Dialogue on e-commerce (GBDe)).