An unimpeded access to foreign markets is decisive
The crisis in Crimea and the territorial disputes in East Asia have made it clear how fragile and how prone to political conflict some foreign markets and regions are. Ensuring their stability and resolving conflicts peacefully is therefore of the utmost importance. But the industry's need for security does not stop at investment protection; it also includes intellectual property rights, protection against cyber-attacks, secure access to raw materials and the protection of logistical and supply chains.
The stability of the eurozone and of the European Union and the reliability and crisis resistance of international economic relations, particularly in the financial sector, are crucial for the German economy.
Germany is highly dependent on foreign trade and investment, as is shown not only by the fact that around 50% of German GDP comes from exports, but also by the high contribution made by value added at foreign investment locations to German companies’ accounts.
Just recently German investment abroad was put at almost 1.2 trillion euros, almost half of this outside the 28 EU member states. But imports are also key for the flourishing German economy. Germany obtains important inputs from other countries and is dependent on energy supplies and mineral resources from abroad.
Investment by foreign companies in Germany makes a substantial contribution to domestic value added. The stability of the eurozone and of the European Union and the reliability and crisis resistance of international economic relations, particularly in the financial sector, are crucial for the German economy. The German business has a huge interest in effective foreign and security policy.
Despite their increasing focus on non-European markets, German companies remain strongly dependent on the EU internal market and in particular the eurozone economies. German industry is extremely keen to see the long-term stabilisation of the eurozone, which in our view cannot be achieved without further steps towards integration in the sense of a democratically embedded fiscal union.
Any further deepening of the eurozone raises questions about the relationship with those countries outside the eurozone which do not support this step – at present the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Czech Republic, and probably also Sweden.
The solution lies in a two-speed Europe with the eurozone at its heart, taking further steps towards integration but also open for other members, and a somewhat looser EU association with the single market at its centre in which Turkey and Ukraine might find a place.
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