European Brewery Convention - Governance of EBC

Governance of EBC

Early in 2007 both governing bodies of EBC, the Board and Council, had been done away with to make way for a transitional executive body designed to steer the organisation through the merger. The EBC Executive Committee was called into being under the chairmanship of the EBC President, Dr. Hilary Jones.

After the first "post-merger" congress held in Hamburg in 2009 (32nd EBC congress), EBC formulated a governance structure that was better designed to suit the changed needs of EBC within the fold of a larger entity. Critical to the success of this was the initiative by the EBC President Christian von der Heide and the then newly-appointed Secretary-General of The Brewers of Europe, Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, to harmonise the respective systems for more effectiveness. Among the changes proposed, one of the most important was to offer a more representative platform not only to brewing companies but allow the national brewing trade associations more of a say in the constitution of the governance of EBC.

Structured along analogous lines to The Brewers of Europe Executive Committee in order to achieve better alignment, the EBC Executive Committee's members are from:

• The four major brewers producing roughly two-thirds of the volume output of beer in Europe, namely Carlsberg, Heineken, AB-Inbev and SABMiller.
• Two other (ie. "non-major") brewing companies.
• Five regional brewing representatives appointed by the national brewing trade associations.

The chairperson of the EBC Executive Committee is the EBC President. He or she is appointed by the EBC Executive Committee (by consensus or majority vote) with the appointment being subject to the approval by the Board of The Brewers of Europe. The current EBC President, Dr. Stefan Lustig, was confirmed by the Board as the new EBC President in November 2011. The Vice-President of EBC, Dr. Stefan Kreisz, is an internal appointment.