Today, UNICE, the Europe wide equivalent of the CBI, hosted an event in which it announced a name change to "Businesseurope" - very sensible in that it lets people see exactly what the organisation is about (UNICE produced puzzled inquiries as to which branch of the UN they belonged to!).

Announcing the launch, alongside the new CBI Director General Richard Lambert, was Ernest-Antoine Seillière - the French President of UNICE/ Businesseurope who became well known across Europe when President Chirac walked out during his presentation to the European Council objecting to the fact that he was speaking in English whereas Chirac felt that as a Frenchman he should be speaking in French!

Seillière got his own back today by commending the new name "Businesseurope" as a perfect balance between an English word "Business" and a French word "Europe"!