BRUSSELS—The 2014 Compliance Week Europe conference took place last week, and yet again it was an outstanding event that left me convinced the compliance profession has taken firm root here. A few random observations while they are fresh in my memory…
Europeans don’t care about compliance? Baloney. We had more than 150 attendees from 22 countries, including many from “peripheral Europe”—Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Romania, Russia, and the like—where people supposedly don’t care about corporate compliance and ethics. Nothing could be further from the truth. They do care, deeply. We had more attendees this year than 2013, from more countries and more companies, even as the European economy continues to sputter and geopolitical tensions have left everyone anxious about what the future holds.
