This year’s Bilderberg conference took place in St. Moritz, Switzerland, from 9-12 June. I’m not going to rehearse the usual conspiracy theories, but from a Brussels point of view it is worth noting that Herman van Rompuy was there, along with former Commissioners Peter Mandelson and Mario Monti, and the omnipotent and omnipresent Etienne Davignon, who was once a Commission vice-president.
Current commissioners Joaquín Almunia and Neelie Kroes also attended, just as they did in 2010. Kroes was at Bilderberg in 2009 as well. It is interesting to note that one of the topics for discussion this year was ‘social networks: connectivity and security issues’. This will have been of particular interest to Kroes, in her role of Digital Agenda Commissioner. It would also have sparked the interest of attendees Chris Hughes (Facebook co-founder), and Eric Schmidt and Reid Hoffman, respectively the executive chairmen of Google and LinkedIn. But any discussion that might have taken place between the CEOs and Kroes no doubt did not touch on her regulatory role.
Meanwhile, Almunia was able to rub shoulders with the top executives from a number of major companies, including Airbus, Shell, Siemens and so on. Unquestionably, Almunia’s impartiality as competition commissioner was in no way dented by any discussions he may or may not have had with these industry leviathans.
One CEO in attendance was Klaus Kleinfeld of Alcoa. In March, the Commission took the Italian government to the EU Court of Justice because it had not done enough to recover illegal state aid given to Alcoa. Alcoa is currently appealing the Commission’s original decision to charge the Italians with reclaiming the aid.
I’m sure that Almunia and Kleinfeld, should they have met at the conference — possibly in the company of Italian economy and finance minister Giulio Tremonti, who was also there — politely steered away from any discussion of this matter.
What is it though with competition commissioners and Bilderberg? The current and previous two holders of that post — Almunia, Kroes and Monti — were all at St. Moritz.
#1 by Joe on June 14, 2011 - 7:59 pm
And did you notice that ther are no cats in the neighborhood anymore….!!!
Sorry, I was just getting into the spirit of the conspiratorially minded. They are, after all, just people trying to fill their empty lives and incomplete knowledge with the idea that THEY (and only THEY) know something that the rest of humanity is JUST TOO DIM to realize.
#2 by zeleneye on June 17, 2011 - 4:50 pm
Interesting post on a gathering that the mainstream media refuses to cover. Devoid of the hysteria of some bloggers but raising pertinent points on conflicts of interest etc.
@Joe – good man yourself: erudite and knowledgeable contribution – maybe you should learn to spell first though (or at least use spell check – I mean the comment box even has automatic spell check). If you are going to post such pointless drivel, you could at least correct the red underlines! Otherwise, crawl back under your stone.
#3 by Isabella Balkert on June 21, 2011 - 12:40 am
It is new that the press and other public blogs are even talking about the Bilderbergers, but when the press suddenly did, they called the Bilderbergers, an institution who was mainly composed to fight communism.
They question is still: “Why a bunch of ex Nazi officers came together at Bilderberg to start a group which ended up, being the main force behind all major decisions of the world and the main force behind the European Union?” – “And why only the filthy rich, royalty, or people of immense power or possibility for power in some political party, or powerfull organisation, are the only ones who gets admitted to the yearly Bilderberg meetings?” And finally: “Why it is so top secret what all these powerfull people talk about every year, that no word of any debate at the Bilderberg meetings, ever reaches press?” When we know the leading persons of most leading papers around the world, is most definitely present!
Why is the Bilderberg meetings so secret, and why, when the press finally talks about the Bilderbergers and the Bilderberg meetings, do they look like they are lying, when they call it an institution which was built to oppose communism?
We have, with EU seen, how a supranational institution has been able to subdue all the European countries like a bunch of fasces around the big Dick, EU represented by an undemocratic elected President and an all powerful European commission, who dares to scold a sovereign country, Denmark, who tries to curb the explosive rise in criminal incidents caused by Schengen and the east European countries.
What is also clear is, that the press is not honest about the rising anger against EU – All over Europe! Which means that every country, in Europe, are told, they are the only people, who are not satisfied with the supranational rule of Europe,by their individual governments, since the opposition to Europe is kept at a national level and not sent as the dayly news to other countries, so they can feel and know, that they are not alone with their anger and frustrations against EU.
EU is and has always been an undemocratic institution, and it seems to me, that some kind of hidden power group, does not care about that, because they aim to create something so powerful, that people almost feel they are up against something or somebody so powerful that it is impossible to go against it, but here is where EU goes wrong.
The big empires with their clay feet and dwindling support of the people, has always crumbled in the end, and what we see of Greece, is only the tip of that iceberg, who is showing us that EU and the Euro comes closer and closer to the ultimative meltdown, and not only because the whole idea of a uniformly governed Europe, by a corrupt commission, the multinationals is sick.
The local politicians of any country, has always known who is really buttering their bread. So when people rise to overturn undemocratic, powerhungry leaders, who serve a political idea that has not resonance in the people, because the political idea only serves those who are employed by the system – This is when the universal politician, can change their political ideas of EU in a heartbeat. And the time to do that is not far of.
#4 by Andre on June 22, 2011 - 5:22 pm
So, how do EC/1049/2001 obligations of Commissioners along with Art 15 TFEU reflect upon their participation in an event governed by Chatham house rule – which attracts so much right wing nut speculation?
Furthermore, why do they travel to Switzerland instead of staying inside the EU and doing their job within their portfolio? Isn’t travels to other nations what we got Cathy Ashton for? I am getting the impression that Commissioners travel too much abroad.