GBTA have announced the launch of their 2012 Industry Affairs Agenda to members and key departments of the European Commission.

Association sets out engagement with EC

The Agenda promotes GBTA’s European positions on four key areas and is co-ordinated with GBTA’s positions with U.S. legislative bodies:
• The health of travel infrastructure
• Passenger efficiency and safety
• Transparency, fair competition, fair taxation and fees
• Reduction of governmental travel costs through smarter procurement

GBTA launched its advocacy initiative via a GBTA Europe Advocacy Group in 2010 and appointed Hans-Ingo Biehl, VDR’s Executive Director as Chair of the group, and Jan Henrik Ulvatne, General Manager of the Norwegian Business Travel Association, as Vice Chair to lead the group.

To access the 2012 Industry Affairs document Click here.

Under a new deal between GBTA and the German association, Mr. Biehl will fulfil the role of lead advocate for GBTA in Europe as part of his Executive Director role for VDR. The Agenda sets out the issues Mr Biehl will be focusing the group’s efforts on, culminating in a planned GBTA European Legislative Summit in Brussels in the autumn.

Talking about the agenda and summit, Mr Biehl said “Advocacy is such an important aspect of GBTA’s work in Europe; we felt at VDR it was important to support it fully. I am delighted to take on the role and build on our initial efforts in 2011. The Legislative Summit plans to be the foremost point of engagement for our industry with the Commission and I hope stakeholders from across our industry engage.”