Taking part in Europe

This week saw the fifth anniversary of the European Commission's decision on 3 July 2001 to block GE's $41 billion takeover of fellow US company Honeywell.

Mario Monti, then the European commissioner for competition, saw competition problems in the fields of airplane engines and avionics. It was a defining moment for the Commission in its conduct of merger policy and in its wider dealings with US business. It was also a rare defeat for Jack Welch, the then boss of GE, who was accused of hubris and being out of touch with the EU authorities.

Asked how he would describe relations between GE and the Commission, compared to five years ago, Immelt replied: "Improved."

"We were a company that did a lot of business in Europe but were not part of the fabric of what happened in Europe."

That GE now has its European offices on the Rond-Point Schuman, within walking distance of the Commission and the Council of Ministers, is an illustration of how things have changed.

"We moved our headquarters of European operations from London to Brussels. We put more European leaders into the key leadership jobs here. We did more advertising in Europe."

He said that he had personally tried to get to know the players and "have a better sense of what is going on". During last week's visit, he attended a dinner hosted by the US ambassador to the EU C. Boyden Gray, where the guests included European Commissioner Stavros Dimas, the Austrian Ambassador to the EU Gregor Woschnagg, his UK counterpart John Grant and Robert Madelin, the Commission's director-general for health.

"We are an American company," said Immelt. "We are what we are. There is nothing wrong with that. We like being an American company."

But, he added: "We recognised that we need to be more part of the current that is Europe and that some knowledge of what happens here is an important part of that."

This week saw the fifth anniversary of the European Commission's decision on 3 July 2001 to block GE's $41 billion takeover of fellow US company Honeywell.

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