Jamie Burrows, Vertical Future’s Founder & CEO, attended the high-level meeting, on Monday 15th April 2024, as a special guest to join a conversation with the Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal and members of the CEO Action Group for the European Green Deal in Brussels.
The European Green Deal (EGD) was launched in 2019 by the European Commission and remains a critical vehicle to ensure a climate-neutral and competitive future for Europe. The many related policy packages aim to improve European competitiveness through policy initiatives covering climate, environment, energy, transport, industry, agriculture and sustainable finance. Achieving this transformative agenda cannot be done by policymakers alone, it requires strong collaboration between all relevant stakeholders, including representatives from governments, business and expert communities.
This convening was the direct outcome of a meeting between the CEO Action Group and Executive Vice-President Šefčovič at the Forum’s last Annual Meeting in Davos, where business leaders discussed the regulatory hurdles they face in reaching their strategic and climate objectives. As a result of that exchange, the Executive Vice-President invited the CEO Action Group to continue the conversation this spring as the Commission finalises its priorities for its next five-year term.
This week’s meeting was again hosted by Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, moderated by Mirek Dušek, Managing Director at the World Economic Forum, and featured opening remarks by the CEO Action Group’s Co-Chairs Ester Baiget, CEO of Novonesis and Feike Sijbesma, Executive Chairman of the Board of Royal Philips.
Ahead of this discussion, members of the community were invited to submit written feedback and recommendations on some of the specific regulatory hurdles they face, which were been shared with the Executive Vice-President’s office ahead of the meeting and serve as a foundation for the discussion.
Huge thanks to the European Commission, the World Economic Forum and Umicore for hosting our Founder and CEO Jamie Burrows alongside the other CEO Action Group members. It was an incredible opportunity for Jamie to represent Vertical Future and the vertical farming industry more broadly, influencing right at the forefront of EU policy-making.