OREANDA-NEWS. June 01, 2015. Belgrade hosted today the 32nd Meeting of the European Business Congress (EBC) Presiding Committee and the 18th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the EBC. The meetings were moderated by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, President of the EBC

The Meeting participants were informed about the 2014 EBC operating results, approved the annual financial statements and heard the reports by the Working Committees Chairpersons. The delegates also addressed a wide range of issues concerning the EBC development, namely, its geographical expansion. In this regard the decision was made to change the name of the event into the International Business Congress (IBC). The next IBC General Meeting will take place in Saint Petersburg in 2016.

The Meeting also considered the election of the IBC Board of Executive Directors and Presiding Committee. Alexey Miller was reelected the IBC President. The new Presiding Committee is comprised of Kestutis Balutis, Chairman of the Achema Group Board, Danilo Durakovic, President of Comita, Alexander Gusev, Chairman of the Moldovagaz Board, Kirill Zhukov-Emelyanov, Member of the UniCredit Bank Supervisory Board, Torgeir Kydland, President of Statoil ASA in Russia, Vladimir Zharov, Director General of Parsek, Janez Skrabec, Managing Director of Riko, Clemens Blum, Executive Vice President of Industry Business at Schneider Electric, Mario Mehren, Member of the Board of Executive Directors at Wintershall Holding, Sergey Tazin, Executive Director of General Electric Oil&Gas in Russia and the CIS.

A Conference entitled “The Future of Europe’s Energy Sector: Its Structure and Place in the Global Market” took place as part of the EBC.

“Speaking of the factor affecting the European gas market, these are, primarily, the domestic production decline in Europe. Therefore, regardless of the gas market behavior, Russian gas supplies to Europe will grow and the share of our gas will increase as well.

Europe has contracted out only 30 per cent of today’s consumption for 2030. Today this is the supplier’s market and there are a few of them now.

The demand for new gas transmission capacities for Russian gas supplies is evident, we are negotiating these issues and we are poised to enter into the relevant productive agreements,” said Alexey Miller in his conference address.

Alexey Miller also met today with Aleksandar Antic, Serbian Energy and Mining Minister, Dusan Bajatovic, Director General of Srbijagas, Danilo Durakovic, President of Comita, Dimitrios Copelouzos, Managing Director of Prometheus Gas, Aljosa Ivancic, Managing Director of Wandon Establishment as well as Olivier Lazar, Chairman of Shell Group in Russia. The parties also addressed Russian gas supplies to Europe and joint projects in the gas sector.

Background

The European Business Congress (EBC) is an international, non-governmental and non-profit organization. The EBC comprises 130 members from such companies as Gazprom, ExxonMobil, Daimler, Siemens, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Total, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, J. P. Morgan Bank International, Alcatel, Wintershall, E.ON Ruhrgas, Eni, Enel, BNP Paribas, UBS, Royal Boskalis Westminster, the Royal Bank of Scotland, KPMG, Societe Generale, Statoil, MND, MAN Ferrostaal, DONG Energy, Sakhalin Energy, Renaissance Capital and others. The EBC membership comprises 25 OSCE member states.

The EBC’s supreme body is the General Meeting. The 46-member Presiding Committee exercises general management. The EBC President is Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee. The 9-member Board of Executive Directors is responsible for executive management.

The Congress deals with practical aspects of economic cooperation issues in Europe and brings forward proposals for debottlenecking and building a safe and favorable environment for entrepreneurial activities. The 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.