23.10.2025 - "Almost a year ago, the member states expressed their commitment to strengthening Europe's position with the Budapest Declaration. However, the promised 'New Deal for European Competitiveness' has not yet reached our businesses. Companies continue to face challenges, particularly excessive bureaucracy and high energy costs, alongside increasingly protectionist measures. Yet the announced 'revolutionary simplification process' and 'new, empowering mindset' are still awaited.

Instead, discussions revolve around how production can be expanded in Europe, for instance, through public procurement, origin labelling, and production requirements. This must not lead to Europe becoming isolated, as it would most certainly harm the internationally integrated German economy. To safeguard our competitiveness, we urgently need to dismantle structural barriers in the single market, significantly reduce bureaucracy among EU countries, lower high energy prices, and accelerate approval processes. At the same time, we require more and more ambitious trade agreements and a realistic climate target for 2040 that balances ecological responsibility with economic rationality.

If this course correction is not achieved very soon, Europe risks further losing economic clout, with far-reaching consequences for growth, employment, and prosperity."