21st BRT Annual Meeting – Brussels, 15 May 2019: "THE EU & JAPAN - ACTING TOGETHER IN A GLOBAL WORLD"
On this webpage : Material from the BRT's 21st Annual Meeting (15/05/2019 in Brussels) : Video recordings of key sessions; a selection of key documents including recommendations and presentations and media and social media coverage of the discussions | the Government of Japan's response to the BRT's 2019 Recommendations | Submission of the BRT's 2019 Recommendations to the Government of Japan (18/09/2019) and to the European Commission (15/05/2019) | You may also wish to consult a separate page with cuttings and additional material from the 2019 annual meeting.
Government of Japan's response to the BRT's 2019 Recommendations
Tokyo - The Government of Japan has issued its formal 'Progress Report' (Japanese original, English tentative translation) in response to the BRT's 2019 Joint Recommendations and Working Party reports.
For the original Joint Recommendations and 4 Working Party reports please see the links towards the bottom of this page.
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Handover of the BRT's 2019 Recommendations
... to the Government of Japan (18/09/2019)
Tokyo - The BRT's 2019 Recommendations were formally submitted to PM Shinzo Abe by BRT co-Chairman Masaki Sakuyama and by Michael Mroczek (Member of the EU-side of the BRT).
Mr Mroczek represented Ben Story who chaired the EU-side of the BRT at the time the Recommendations were adopted. A video recording of the handover is available on the Official Website of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet.
Reports on the handover and tweets can be found on the 2019 cuttings page and the handover was mentioned on a Japanese Government website.
A video recording of the handover is available (© Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, 2019).
[L to R] Patricia Flor (Ambassador of the European Union to Japan, Head of the Delegation), Mr Masaki Sakuyama (BRT co-Chairman and Chairman of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation), Michael Mroczek (BRT Member and Chairman of the European Business Council (EBC) in Japan) and Shinzo Abe (Prime Minister of Japan).
[L to R] Mr Masaki Sakuyama (BRT co-Chairman and Chairman of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) and Michael Mroczek (BRT Member and Chairman of the European Business Council (EBC) in Japan) submit the BRT's 2019 Recommendations to Shinzo Abe (Prime Minister of Japan).
Both photos from: Official Website of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet (http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/98_abe/actions/201909/18brt.html).
... to the European Commission (15/05/2019)
Brussels - During the 2019 BRT annual meeting, the Recommendations were submitted to European Commission Vice-President Katainen who received them on behalf of European Commission President Juncker.
A video recording of the handover is available (© European Union, 2019).
Photo © Imaginyou/E.Charneux. Video © European Union, 2019. To access different versions of the recordings (high-resolution or audio only) please see the EbS webpage (and scroll down to 14:30).
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"The EU & Japan - Acting together in a global world"
The 21st Annual Meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table took place at the Palais d'Egmont in Brussels on Wednesday 15th May.
To see how the BRT was covered on Twitter, LinkedIn and by the media, see the 2019 cuttings page.
Entitled, The EU & Japan - Acting together in a global world, it addressed a wide range of topics and featured discussions with 4 European Commissioners, 2 Parliamentary Vice Ministers from Japan and 4 Directors-General from the European Commission and Japan:
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Helping SMEs take advantage of the EPA: This session was livestreamed and recorded by the Europe by Satellite service and is available for viewing again. |
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Keynote addresses: This session was livestreamed and recorded by the Europe by Satellite service and is available for viewing again. |
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Advancing regulatory cooperation, free trade, WTO reform, untying market distorting measures: This session was livestreamed and recorded by the Europe by Satellite service and is available for viewing again. |
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Developing the EU-Japan agri-food industry: This session was livestreamed and recorded by the Europe by Satellite service and is available for viewing again.
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Other topics discussed at the meeting included:
All photos from the BRT annual meeting © Imaginyou/E.Charneux. All videos from the BRT annual meeting © European Union, 2019. To access different versions of the recordings (high-resolution or audio only) please see the EbS webpage (and scroll down to 14:30).
Documents from the 2019 annual meeting
Various documents are available from the 15 May 2019 annual meeting:
| The Agenda for the Day | List of Members | ||
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| Summary of Recommendations | |||
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| Recommendations and presentations by the BRT's 4 Working Parties | |||
| Working Party 1 | Working Party 2 | ||
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| Working Party 3 | Working Party 4 | ||
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| Presentations from different sessions | |||
| Bilateral Investment / Investment Cooperation in Third Countries | |||
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| Helping SMEs take advantage of the EU-Japan EPA | |||
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| Circular Economy, SDGs | |||
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ANA AVATAR video | |
| Advancing regulatory cooperation, free trade, WTO reform, untying market distorting measures | |||
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| Developing the EU-Japan agri-food industry | |||
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Media and social media coverage
To see how the BRT was covered on Twitter, LinkedIn and by the media, please see the 2019 cuttings page.
The European Commission daily Midday Express briefing issued a statement linking the BRT, the EU-Japan EPA and the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation (the BRT's Secretariat):
The EU-Japan Centre currently produces 5 newsletters :
Joint venture established in 1987 by the European Commission (DG GROW) and the Japanese Government (METI) for promoting all forms of industrial, trade and investment cooperation between the EU and Japan.
The EU-Japan Centre’s activities are subject to the allocation of a Grant Agreement by the European Commission for 2024-2026
