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19th BRT Annual Meeting – Brussels, 11 July 2017: "EU-JAPAN – THE DAWN OF A NEW RELATIONSHIP"

The BRT held its 19th annual meeting, on 11 July 2017, at the Palais d'Egmont in Brussels.

The 2017 BRT   BRT participants at the drink reception

 

To see how the BRT was covered on Twitter and by the media, see the 2017 cuttings page.

The meeting on 11 July, began with a formal opening session with keynote addresses from European Commission Vice-President Katainen and Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Sonoura. Mr Katainen then received the formal submission of the BRT's 2017 Recommendations on behalf of the European Commission.

A transcript of Mr Katainen's speech is available on the European Commission's website.

Formal submission of the BRT's 2017 Recommendations to the European Commission

 

The next session addressed practical examples of EU-Japan science and research cooperation in fields as diverse as 5G, aerospace and in AI & IoT. It included a speech by Mr Akama, State Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.

State Minister Akama addresses the themed discussion on research cooperation

 

 

The BRT then had the opportunity to react to the recently-announced EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. EU Trade Commissioner Malmström, Mr Sonoura and the European Parliament's Silva Pereira all took part in the discussion.

A transcript of Ms Malmström's speech is available on the European Commission's website.

Trade Commissioner Malmström and State Minister Sonoura take part in the session on the EU-Japan EPA in the context of Global Trade   Pedro Silva Pereira MEP takes part in the session on the EU-Japan EPA in the context of Global Trade

 

The final themed discussion addressed the Digital Economy and began with keynote addresses by European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip and by State Minister Akama.

A transcript of Mr Ansip's speech is available on the European Commission's website.

European Commission Vice President Ansip and State Minister Akama take part in the "Digital Economy" session

 

The BRT held its traditional Joint Session with the Authorities in the afternoon.

Lowri Evans, Director-General at DG GROW gave the keynote speech during the evening drinks reception and Hiroshige Seko, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan gave the dinner keynote speech.

Director-General Lowri Evans addresses the drinks reception at the BRT annual meeting   METI Minister Seko addresses the closing dinner at the BRT annual meeting

The BRT formally adopted several documents:

 

BRT on twitter

The meeting received some coverage on twitter. See the 2017 cuttings page for copies of the tweets. The original tweets can also be found below.

 

Handover of the BRT's 2017 Recommendations to PM Abe

On 19 July 2017, BRT Japan-side Chairman, Mr Tsukuda, and BRT EU-side Member, Mr Risberg, formally submitted the BRT's 2017 Recommendations to PM Abe. Danny Risberg took part, to represent Mr Schulz at the handover.

The handover was reported on the official Japanese Government website in English and in Japanese, together with a video recording and pictures from the meeting.

Formal submission of the BRT's 2017 Recommendations to PM Abe

Handover photo © courtesy of Cabinet Secretariat, Cabinet Public Relations Office

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