| Étienne Davignon | |
| Office: | European Commissioner for Industrial Affairs and Energy |
| President: | Gaston Thorn |
| Term Start: | 6 January 1981 |
| Term End: | 6 January 1985 |
| Predecessor: | Himself (Internal Market, Customs Union and Industrial Affairs) Guido Brunner (Energy, the Science and Research) |
| Successor: | Karl-Heinz Narjes (Industry, Information Technology, Science and Research) Nicolas Mosar (Energy) |
| Office2: | European Commissioner for the Internal Market, the Customs Union and Industrial Affairs |
| President2: | Roy Jenkins |
| Term Start2: | 6 January 1977 |
| Term End2: | 6 January 1981 |
| Predecessor2: | Finn Olav Gundelach (Internal Market and the Customs Union) Cesidio Guazzaroni (Industry and Technology) |
| Successor2: | Karl-Heinz Narjes (Internal Market, Industrial Innovation, the Customs Union, the Environment, Consumer Protection and Nuclear Safety) Himself (Industrial Affairs and Energy) |
| Birth Date: | 4 October 1932 |
| Birth Place: | Budapest, Hungary |
| Party: | Humanist Democratic Centre |
| Alma Mater: | Catholic University of Louvain |
Étienne, Count Davignon (born 4 October 1932) is a Belgian former diplomat, top civil servant, businessman, and former vice-president of the European Commission.
After receiving a Doctorate of Law from the Catholic University of Louvain, Davignon joined the Belgian Foreign Ministry, in 1959, and within two years had become an attaché under Paul-Henri Spaak, then Minister of Foreign Affairs.[1] He remained in Belgian government until 1965. In 1970, he chaired the committee of experts which produced the Davignon report on foreign policy for Europe.[2]
Davignon later became the first head of the International Energy Agency,[1] from 1974 to 1977, before becoming a member of the European Commission, of which he was vice-president from 1981 until 1985. From 1989 to 2001, he was chairman of the Belgian bank Société Générale de Belgique, which is now part of the French supplier Engie and was not an arm of the French bank Société Générale, but a Belgian institution. As of 2010 he was Vice Chairman of Suez subsidiary Suez-Tractebel.[3]
As chairman of Société Générale de Belgique, he was a member of the European Round Table of Industrialists.[1] He is the current co-chairman of the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table, chairman of the Paul-Henri Spaak Foundation, president of the EGMONT – Royal Institute for International Relations, chairman of CSR Europe, chairman of the European Academy of Business in Society and was chairman of the annual Bilderberg conference from 1998 to 2001.[4] He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.[5]
Davignon is the chairman of the board of directors of Brussels Airlines,[6] which he co-founded after the bankruptcy of Sabena. He is also a member of the board of numerous Belgian companies, and is the chairman of the board of directors and of the General Assembly of the ICHEC Brussels Management School.[7]
On 26 January 2004, Davignon was given the honorary title of Minister of State, giving him a seat on the Crown Council of Belgium.
Created Count Davignon by King Philippe in 2018.
Davignon is a crucial member of the Strategic Advisory Panel of The European Business Awards. He is a member of the Cercle Gaulois and a member of the advisory board of the Itinera Institute think tank. He is also president of the Brussels-based think tank Friends of Europe.[2]
Davignon was the long-term partner of Antoinette Spaak, daughter of Paul-Henri Spaak, whom he had met while working as his chef de cabinet.
Étienne's grandfather, Julien Davignon, also served in the government of Belgium, being Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1914, at the outbreak of World War I.[8]
|-|-|-|-