HOTREC 81st General Assembly: electing the 2021-2022 leadership to face the many challenges ahead
HOTREC 81st General Assembly: electing the 2021-2022 leadership to face the many challenges ahead
15 October 2020 – on the occasion of its 81st General Assembly, HOTREC, the umbrella association of Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés in Europe, elected today its President, Executive Committee (ExCom) and the members of its Sectoral Social Dialogue (SSD) Committee for a mandate of two years, starting on 1st January 2021.
Mr. Jens Zimmer Christensen (Denmark), President, Mr. Marc Van Muylders (Belgium), Vice-President, and Mr. Adrian Cummins (Ireland), Treasurer, were unanimously re-elected. Mr. Jean-Marc Banquet d’Orx (France) was re-elected as Chair of the SSD Committee.
Mr. Zimmer Christensen was honoured by the trust placed of the HOTREC membership and stated: “COVID-19 hit the industry first and the hardest. Businesses in the hospitality and tourism sector – 90% of them micro-enterprises – struggle to survive and millions of jobs are at risk. The deployment of significant financial support from the EU and the individual Member States is essential to bring the sector back on track.”
“The only way to overcome this crisis is for all Member States to act in a coordinated manner by harmonising travel restrictions, so as to bring confidence back to travellers,” said Ms. Marie Audren, Director General of HOTREC. “The agreement reached on 13 October on this topic by the European Council is to be considered a good start, but hardly a solution. HOTREC and its European partners believe that the freedom of movement should be restored and that quarantines should be replaced by an EU common testing protocol” she added.
Note to the editor:
The new HOTREC Executive Committee (ExCom) is now composed of President Mr. Jens Zimmer Christensen (Denmark), Vice-President Mr. Marc Van Muylders (Belgium), Treasurer Mr. Adrian Cummins (Ireland), Mr. Alexandros Vassilikos (Greece), Mr. Antonio Flamini (Italy), Mr. Dirk Beljaarts (Netherlands), Mr. Markus Luthe (Germany), Ms. Melissa Morandi (France), Mr. Morten Thorvaldsen (Norway), Mr. Ramón Estalella Halffter (Spain) and Mr. Václav Stárek (Czech Republic).
The new Sectoral Social Dialogue (SSD) Committee is now composed of Mr. Jean-Marc Banquet D’Orx, Chair (France), Mr. Angelo Giuseppe Candido (Italy), Ms. Emilie S. Westersø (Denmark), Ms. Fatima Hollander (Sweden), Mr. Paul Schoormans (Netherlands) and Mr. Sami Nisametdin (Finland).
The new Financial Committee is now composed of Mr. Julian Bystrzanowski (Poland) and Ms. Kristin Krohn Devold (Norway).
For further information: www.hotrec.eu
PRESS CONTACT: Alessia Angiulli, Publication, Event and Social Media Officer, [email protected]
HOTREC represents the hotel, restaurant and café industry at European level. HOTREC brings together 45 national associations representing the interest of this industry in 33 different European countries. The sector counts in total around 2 million businesses, being 99,5% small and medium-sized enterprises (90% are micro-enterprises, i.e. employing less than 10 people). These businesses make up some 60% of value-added. The industry provides almost 12,5 million jobs in the EU alone (2017). Together with the other tourism industries, the sector is the 3rd largest industry in Europe.