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DE BUCK STOPS HERE: He speaks for all Eurobusinesses |
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Philippe De Buck Van Overstraeten
55, Belgian
Why He Matters: He lobbies the E.U. on behalf of millions of companies
Location: Brussels
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Posted Sunday, Dec. 1, 2002; 15.43GMT
De Buck's organization, the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), calls itself "the voice of business in Europe," and on paper it's a colossus: it represents industry and employer organizations from 27 countries that are made up of 16 million companies employing more than 100 million people. But de Buck, an avid hiker, has faced an uphill struggle since he took over as secretary-general at the beginning of 2002. Quite apart from the huge policy agenda in Brussels, he has had to deal with internal morale issues — his predecessor lasted just two years and other senior staff quit — that have sapped the group's credibility with its big members, including the Confederation of British Industry.
De Buck says he was surprised to discover how slow the labyrinthine political process can be at the E.U. level and "just how difficult it is to make the business voice heard." He's trying to get his organization to be less defensive — and to persuade national members to back him up by devoting more time and resources to Europe-wide affairs. So far he gets praise for effort from member organizations, who have agreed to increase unice's budget by 5%. But some, including the head of the French business confederation, gripe at how long it took to coordinate Europe's response to the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which subjected European firms listed on U.S. stock markets to a slew of rules that either conflict with European practices or will create costly duplication. His counterpart at the European Trade Union Confederation, general secretary Emilio Gabaglio, says de Buck "is a tough negotiator, but it's my impression he's someone you can do business with."
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