Paragon, the international partnership of business travel associations, has appointed a lobbyist in Brussels.
Sandra van de Walle's role will be to report on any developments or moves at the European Commission which could affect travel management professionals as well as promoting the interests of the group's European members.
Ms van de Walle was appointed at the group's meeting in Frankfurt this week.
The meeting also discussed Paragon's views on the probable de-regulation of the GDSs and the situation over the EC's Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreement with the Americans which was rejected by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in May.
On GDS de-regulation, the spokesman said the members were generally in favour of de-regulation but were concerned that that it might be lead to a commercial invasion of content with airlines paying for their inventory to be prominently displayed.
On the PNR deal which the ECJ ruled was "not founded on a legal basis", Paragon's spokesman said members were worried about what happened to data once it was handed over to the US authorities.
JetBlue considers re-joining the GDS system
JetBlue, one of America's leading low cost carriers, is considering re-joining the GDS system to attract more business travellers.
Mr David Neeleman, chairman and ceo of the New York-based airline, reportedly told the recent Merrill Lynch Global Transportation that he was losing business travellers because JetBlue was not on the GDS system.
JetBlue which was founded by Mr Neeleman in 2000, worked with Sabre until 2004.
Hotelzon buys stake in IT consultancy
Hotel booking agency, Hotelzon has taken a stake in IT consultancy ARoBS Transylvania Software.
The Romanian company has worked with Hotelzon for two years and provides it with IT support, call centre services and system development.
Mr Jouni Peltonen, Hotelzon's chief technical officer, said: "ARoBS is a well-established, mid-sized IT consultancy company with a good reputation and skill base.
"This acquisition fits extremely well into our strategy of creating a top-of-the-class technology development team for the group."
ARoBS, which was founded in 1998 by Mr Voicu Oprean, is currently working with Hotelzon on developing an online booking tool.
* see BTE's new recruitment site www.businesstraveljobs.com