The Bilderberg Group nowadays openly says it sets the sizzling global topics at its meetings. They are all major global issues. It also defines who discusses them. You can’t invite yourself to join the in-crowd, even if you are a journalist or a policeman. This is not the United Nations. You cannot peak in. World media bosses are there, but sworn not to report. It has publicity gurus but the public is excluded. No video or YouTube is streamed.
American, British and non-EU oligarchs mix with scores of foreign spies, oil barons, IT technologists, industrialists, global wealth brokers… And Commissioners sworn not to bend the law, to stop cartels and to protect the public from external attack. Why are they there?
The public is suspicious of politicians and judges meeting in secret with companies that were already fined billions for wrong-doing. Rightly so. They fear the Rule of Law, Justice and even their security is being compromised by the powerful.
Europeans are told their future democracy will be transparent. This is the opposite. They are told the public is in charge. At the Bilderberg, they are excluded. Who manages such secret meetings? What is their motive? Are they subverting European standards and norms?
Why invite European Commissioners, like Vice President Margaritis Schinas and Commissioner Didier Reynders? By European law they should not be there. Mr Schinas is vice president ‘for promoting our European way of life.’ He coordinates EU security. Mr Reynders is Commissioner for Justice. He oversees the Rule of Law.
The people who want to speak to them in secret are considered to be among the richest, most powerful and the most influential people in Europe and North America. Some companies have paid the biggest fines ever for wrong-doing.
The Group says the purpose of the meetings is to exchange information with others.
That can’t be bad. Surely?
Whoever makes the invitations knows exactly what the outcome should be. The public do not.
Sacking Commissioners
The public know there is no such thing as a free lunch. More than 99.999999% of them do not get invited to a luxury hotel for a three-day conference with bankers, spies, oil tycoons, government ministers, and industrialists. Such people know how to spend money, make money, control people, jab people, analyse events, strategise geopolitics, and influence all determining interests.
So why is someone paying for this? The obvious answer is influence. Who is the someone influencing the Commissioners?
The Lisbon Treaty TFEU article 245 says Commissioners must declare by oath or solemn declaration not to engage in other occupations, gainful or not. Illicit, secretive behaviour would skew their judgement and justice for Europeans. Commissioners are proposers of laws, officers of the law and supposedly guardians of the laws and treaties. They must be impartial and independent of outside interests. And seen to be so.
The European Court of Justice can deprive Commissioners of their office for this violation. They would lose pension and other benefits.
Their oath of office says that they should avoid like the plague any suspicion of outside influence and not get into compromising situations that would give the public any suspicion they had lost their independence and impartiality.
Commissioners solemnly undertake:
in the performance of my tasks, neither to seek nor to take instructions from any Government or from any other institution, body, office or entity;
to refrain from any action incompatible with my duties or the performance of my tasks.
“I formally note the undertaking of each Member State to respect this principle and not to seek to influence Members of the Commission in the performance of their tasks.
“I further undertake to respect, both during and after my term of office, the obligation arising therefrom, and in particular the duty to behave with integrity and discretion as regards the acceptance, after I have ceased to hold office, of certain appointments or benefits.”
Based on the latter phrase, the public would not expect either for Commissioners to attend or for former Commissioners to be part of the welcoming Bilderberg crowd that is there to greet them.
The reality is far from that. What does the private feasting and covert glad-handing look like? The subversion of the European justice system.
The targets
The organisers say that they choose 120 to 130 invitees by predetermined rules:
About two thirds of the participants come from Europe and the rest from North America; one third from politics and government and the rest from other fields. The Meeting is a forum for informal discussions about major issues.
First question:
The European Commission is the Honest Broker of the European system. It is set up as an arbitrator of disputes between three levels of democratic society:
a. national governments in the Council of Ministers (not yet open to public)
b. organised civil society in the Consultative Committees (not yet elected).
c. Individuals in the European Parliament (not yet one person, one vote).
These three sections are not functioning properly — hence the Democratic Deficit — but the European Commission must therefore work all the more strenuously to ensure fair play for Europeans. It has to be impartial and independent.
The European Commission has another vital role that affects every euro and cent of European consumers. It is Europe’s anti-cartel agency. It must make sure that groups and cliques (whether governments, enterprises, unions or geopolitical powers) do not unjustly exploit and ‘rip off’ the European economic assets against fair trade and free competition.
So the first question is about public protection and security:
Why are members of an anti-cartel agency mixing with groups of the most powerful world companies in secret? Why mix with global financiers? Why chat with top spies? Why all this secrecy from Commissioners who declare they are in favour of transparency? Why is there no record of what they say to each other?
Second Question:
As the anti-cartel agency, the European Commission has judicial and legal powers. It acts like a judge. The EU has many cases, open and under appeal to the European Court. The entire European Commission must agree about when and if they must bring a legal case against a cartel for price-gouging against the consumer.
Consider a Commissioner who acts as a judge in a competition/ cartel case.
Should any judge take instructions or receive information from one of the cartel parties to the exclusion of the consumer interests? In the case of cartels, the plaintiff is the public consumer.
The European Community was the first international governance system that gave legal voice to the consumer. Where is the consumer’s voice for honesty in the Bilderberg meetings? Nowhere.
Does a judge in court listen to just one opinion or receive information only from one side while a case is under examination? No. The judge is forbidden to take information that is unknown and unseen by the plaintiff. The same goes for a jury.
While the case is on, the jury members are forbidden to discuss the matters at hand with their families or to read comments or information from other sources, or listen to radio, TV or the internet. They must only accept information that has been presented in Court and is subject to forensic analysis by lawyers as being true to the facts.
Both judges and jury have to show that they are honest and impartial people before they can exercise justice.
So what do the Bilderbergers say about themselves?
The Bilderberg Meeting is a forum for informal discussions about major issues. The meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule, which states that participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor any other participant may be revealed.
Third Question
Should Commissioners seek and receive information that directly impacts their work and be under the promise never to reveal this secret information to the public to whom they are responsible?
This is what the Bilderberg Group requires of their participants and invitees.
Thanks to the private nature of the Meeting, the participants take part as individuals rather than in any official capacity, and hence are not bound by the conventions of their office or by pre-agreed positions. As such, they can take time to listen, reflect and gather insights. There is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken and no policy statements are issued.
Do these ‘insights’ include the subtle message ‘Nothing to see here. There are no cartels here. We are all only acting for the public good.’ ‘Judges are off-duty here.’
Fourth Question.
Who invites European Commissioners to a meeting that they should on no account attend by law? The Bilderberg Steering Committee has close connection if not co-governance structure with the World Economic Forum, which is a global organisation to the Bilderberg’s Atlantic reach.
Who sends invitations? Here are the culprits.
STEERING COMMITTEE
CO-CHAIRS
Halberstadt, Victor (NLD), Chairman Foundation Bilderberg Meetings; Professor of Economics, Leiden University, Faculty member, World Economic Forum.
Kravis, Marie-Josée (USA), President, American Friends of Bilderberg Inc.;
Chair, The Museum of Modern Art, Board member, LVMH, Publicis, Fed Reserve Bank of N Y.
Abrams, Stacey (USA), Founder, Fair Fight Action
Achleitner, Paul M. (DEU), Treasurer, Foundation Bilderberg Meetings; Chairman Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG
Altman, Roger C. (USA), Founder and Senior Chairman, Evercore Inc, investment banker.
Alverà, Marco (ITA), CEO, Snam SpA, Tree Energy Solutions.
Barbizet, Patricia (FRA), Chairwoman and CEO, Temaris & Associés SAS, Christies.
Barroso, José Manuel (PRT), Chairman, Goldman Sachs International LLC; Former President, European Commission
Botín, Ana P. (ESP), Group Executive Chair, Banco Santander
Brende, Børge (NOR), President, World Economic Forum, Former Norwegian Foreign Minister
Carney, Mark J. (CAN), Vice Chair, Brookfield Asset Management, environmental, social governance, Fmr Governor Bank of England
Castries, Henri de (FRA), President, Institut Montaigne, fmr Chairman &CEO AXA.
Döpfner, Mathias (DEU), Chairman and CEO, Axel Springer SE
Gruber, Lilli (ITA), Editor-in-Chief and Anchor "Otto e mezzo", La7 TVHedegaard, Connie (DNK), Chair, KR Foundation; Former European Commissioner
Hobson, Mellody (USA), Co-Ceo and President, Ariel Investments LLC, chairwoman Starbucks
Karp, Alex (USA), CEO, Palantir Technologies Inc.
Koç, Ömer M. (TUR), Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
Kudelski, André (CHE), Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group SA
Leysen, Thomas (BEL), Chairman, Mediahuis and Umicore Mediahuis, billion euro media conglomerate in Ireland and Benelux. Umicore €4 billion revenue mineral company
Liikanen, Erkki (FIN), Bank of Finland, Chairman, IFRS, Helsinki Graduate School of Economics, fmr European Commissioner
Micklethwait, John (USA), Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg LP
Minton Beddoes, Zanny (GBR), Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
Mundie, Craig J. (USA), President, Mundie & Associates LLC, fmr advisor Microsoft.
O'Leary, Michael (IRL), Group CEO, Ryanair Group
Papalexopoulos, Dimitri (GRC), CEO, TITAN Cement Company SA
Sawers, John (GBR), Executive Chairman, Newbridge Advisory, fmr head of UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, UK Ambassador to UN, director of BP Global. Newberry Advisors advise: The West is no longer dominant in the global economy
Schadlow, Nadia (USA), Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
Schmidt, Eric E. (USA), Former CEO and Chairman, Google LLC
Sikorski, Radoslaw (POL), MEP; Senior Fellow, Harvard University; Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland
Thiel, Peter (USA), President, Thiel Capital LLC
Wallenberg, Marcus (SWE), Chairman, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB
Winter, Jaap (NLD), Partner, Phyleon leadership & governance
Zeiler, Gerhard (AUT), Chief Revenue Officer, WarnerMedia LLC
Last question: Who pays?
The expenses of maintaining the small secretariat of Bilderberg Meetings are covered wholly by private subscription. The hospitality costs of the annual Meeting are the responsibility of the Steering Committee member(s) of the host country.
European Commissioners are not allowed to accept gifts and ‘free’ luxury accommodation from businesses and such interests. That might constitute bribes or attempts to influence on an important material level.
Did Commissioners Schinas and Reynders declare in Brussels that they were accepting the Bilderberg invitation? Did they repay for the luxury hotel accommodation out of their own pocket?
And what did they discuss with these hundred powerful people?
Well reported.hh