Journalists love the Bilderberg group because it has an air of secrecy and conspiracy. In fact, rather than anything very substantial, it seems to be largely a vanity project – people who think themselves very important gathering in an air of secrecy and conspiracy. Last week in the Commission’s press room there were questions about the possible attendance of José Manuel Barroso.
Barroso was not there at the June 3-6 meeting in Sitges, Spain. Three of his colleagues were however: Joaquín Almunia, Karel de Gucht and Neelie Kroes. At least that is what the Bilderberg website says – the group is getting a little less secretive it seems.
For all the secrecy and conspiracy (and public expense of getting the Spanish police out to guard the venue, though apparently Bilderberg refunds any such costs incurred), judging from the list of participants, Bilderberg seems to be a gathering of rather second division VIPs. Almunia, de Gucht and Kroes got to rub shoulders with a number of company CEOs, some journalists, and luminaries such as premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell, president of Austria Heinz Fischer and Greek finance minister George Papaconstantinou. Er, isn’t rubbing shoulders with these people what the Commissioners do every day anyway? Admittedly there were more important attendees, such as Bill Gates and famous war criminal (according to Christopher Hitchens) Henry Kissenger. Spanish PM Zapatero was there as well.
And of course Bilderberg is chaired by former EU Commissioner and the man who allegedly secretly runs Belgium, Etienne Davignon.
Bilderberg justifies its secrecy by stating that participants all attend in a personal capacity and it is therefore not a public event. So no doubt the Commissioners that attended all did so on unpaid days off, and travelled and accommodated themselves for the event at their own expense.
#1 by demotalk on June 9, 2010 - 2:10 pm
i often wondered about that group. Thanks for the demystification process!
it relaxes the atmosphere…is there any similar group in the USA? (just to make things a little tougher).
#2 by Freeborn John on June 9, 2010 - 4:54 pm
The top-class vanity event is Davos. Some of these Bilderbergers don’t have their own airplanes.
#3 by Joe on June 9, 2010 - 7:26 pm
Virtually ALL summits are 1st class, A1 vanity events. Including COP15 and the rest of the more ‘politically correct’ ones. Unless there was a killer asteroid hurtling our way, they are all unworthy of anyone’s attention.
Even the army of interns with a personality deficit that these organizations create doesn’t justify them.
#4 by Axure on June 9, 2010 - 8:13 pm
Yes, right, heads of biggest national and international corporations (telecoms, banks, energy, transportation, Google) representatives of think-tanks and influential publications (The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post etc.) and of governments seriously concerned about the financial crisis (Greece, Spain, Portugal, EU), all of whom are totally second-division, most certainly meet only to play golf and exchange anecdotes. That’s also why there’s such tight security, secrecy and somehow next to no information at all in mainstream media.
What are you, a five-year-old?
I too am irritated by the conspiracy theories, because I prefer to know what’s really going on, instead of just inventing crazy explanations. But the way you’re trying to downplay this makes me wonder do you really just like to turn your head away and not worry, or are you trying to score some points with current or potential employers?
#5 by Brian Jones on June 10, 2010 - 9:13 am
Axure – do you think these people don’t meet all the time anyway? What is Neelie Kroes doing in Brussels if she is not meeting people from Google and similar? Government ministers from all EU countries are in Brussels all the time. So what really is special about Bilderberg? Do you think it is some kind of unique event and all the people that go there don’t know each other anyway?
#6 by finnegag on June 10, 2010 - 10:15 am
You’re one of them aren’t you? I knew it!
Seriously though, the Bildberg group is a bit of a post-word relic, designed for a time when US & European business had the world to themselves (and presumably wanted to keep the Soviets down).
It’s becoming a bit irrelevant these days in light of China’s rise. Not to mention Brazil & India.
The Trilateral Commission is a similar group – made up of US, European and Japanese big-wigs – but it too looks a bit datea.
Incidentally, leading lights in the TC often pop up at Bilderberg meetings. For example: former Commissioner Peter Sutherland (currently chair of Goldman Sachs & BP – and so a hugely popular chap) chairs the European wing of the Trilateral Commission and is on the Bilderberg steering committee.
Incidentally, interesting to see how embedded The Economist is. Nothing terribly surprising about all this, I suppose, but they would do well to cover China in the same way as they cover US/EU affairs. China is still the disruptive newcomer who doesn’t understand our rules, apparently.
Good point about the VIP list being a bit second rate. Big hitters (Obama, Barroso, Merkel etc.) probably don’t want the negative publicity that comes with the Bilderberg group now. Soon it’ll just be a bunch of washed-up politicians yapping with burned-out tycoons while the real stuff happens elsewhere. By phone, probably.
p.s. I doubt you have any agenda other than finding the Bilderbergs interesting…but it is a handy way to attract traffic to the blog!
#7 by Axure on June 10, 2010 - 9:17 pm
When leaders of the behemoths of the corporate world are meeting with most important ministers and representatives of leading media, I think they should be totally transparent about what’s going on. And here it’s not only not transparent – the information is actually suppressed. (And please don’t give me BS about conspiracy theories. Media leaders do control the message. Or do you want to pretend that Murdoch doesn’t do deals with political parties to support them with his outlets?)
We all hear about corruption scandals in our respective countries. And you would probably agree that only a fraction of all misconduct is ever uncovered, right? And all that happens despite law enforcement services, rules for lobbying and an inquisitive press. So imagine what might happen when there is no oversight whatsoever. And when there’s such a rich pool of entities (corp., gov’t, media) to pick your “partners” from and do a “deal” on spot (as opposed to, say, one corporation corrupting one minister).
#8 by Oliver on June 11, 2010 - 11:40 pm
My hunch is also that it’s largely a vanity project, though I’m sure meetings of influential people take place around the world all the time.
I’m not remotely interested in conspiracy theories yet I seem to be constantly reading about this particular group these days; they’d be better off producing a list of attendees, an agenda and a dull statement at the end – then we could all ignore them and read about something much more interesting.
#9 by Sean; Murtagh on June 15, 2010 - 9:07 am
The EU project was thought up and created at a “Bilderberg Group” meeting. Vanity; very unlikely, criminal more like!
#10 by Sean; Murtagh on June 15, 2010 - 9:15 am
If “Stephen Gardner” believes that any Politician does even the simplest task without pay then he is more than likely an inhabitant of another planet. They don’t in my opinion even do what they are paid for by the taxpayers that they supposedly work for.
#11 by Oliver Smith on June 15, 2010 - 10:39 am
You mat notice that Mr Rockerfeller has alot to do with this group and to anyone with their eyes open this man has alot of influence in affairs over the last few decades.In America you have the CFR based in New York with a new office in Washington,in which Hillary Clinton had some interesting things to say about their influence.
#12 by Jean-Baptiste Perrin on June 16, 2010 - 10:07 am
Guys, we live in an information technology world. If the Bilderberg people were a secret group, they would do what all other secret groups do: use secured encryption and internet. When you meet physically every year in a big hotel, you are not a secret group, you are throwing a party.
#13 by Rok Feller on June 17, 2010 - 4:48 pm
In France we have \ Le Siècle\.
Sorry it’s in French.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Siècle