On Thursday, May 30, an annual meeting will take place with approximately 130 political leaders and experts across fields such as finance, labour, academia and the media. Of these attendees, around two-thirds come from Europe and the rest from North America. Around one third are members of governments and politics whilst the rest attend from other fields.
The Bilderberg Group was founded in 1954 and the meeting takes place each year.
This year for the 67th Bilderberg Meeting, the group will convene in Montreux in Switzerland in order to discuss several important topics.
The meeting was put in place to facilitate talks between Europe and North America.
The Bilderberg 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 of any other participant may be revealed.
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As the meeting is such a private affair, participants take part as individuals rather than in their official capacities and are then not bound by the conventions of their roles.
This is to ensure participants can use their time at the meeting to listen, consider and gather insights.
According to the official Bilderberg website, “there is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.”
This year the Bilderberg Meeting begins on Thursday, May 30 and will conclude on Sunday, June 2.
On the list of official participants, there are 12 British attendees
- Andrew Adonis – Member, House of Lords
- Mark J Carney – Governor, Bank of England
- Jeremy Fleming – Director, British Government Communications Headquarters
- Timothy Garton Ash – Professor of European Studies, Oxford University
- Helge Lund – Chairman, BP plc; Chairman, Novo Nordisk AS
- Zanny Minton Beddoes – Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
- John Sawers – Executive Chairman, Newbridge Advisory
- Minouche Shafik – Director, The London School of Economics and Political Science
- Mustafa Suleyman – Co-Founder, Deepmind
- Mark Tucker – Group Chairman, HSBC Holding Plc
- Tom Tugendhat – MP, Conservative Party
- Martin H Wolf – Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times
Also in attendance will be senior advisor to US President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Topics on the agenda are as follows:
- A Stable Strategic Order
- What Next for Europe?
- Climate Change and Sustainability
- China
- Russia
- The Future of Capitalism
- Brexit
- The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
- The Weaponisation of Social Media
- The Importance of Space
- Cyber Threats