Hereditary Grand Ducal Couple, Economy Minister Join Luxembourg-Germany Business Club's 10th Anniversary Celebrations

On Thursday 6 October 2022, Their Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess, and Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, traveled to Berlin on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Luxembourg-Germany Business Club (Business Club Luxemburg-Deutschland - BCLD).

During the visit, Minister Fayot also had a working meeting with Federal Minister for Economics and Climate Protection of Germany, Robert Habeck.

Visit to RE-NT, working lunch and interview with Robert Habeck

Upon his arrival in Berlin, Minister Fayot was welcomed by the Ambassador of Luxembourg to Germany, Jean-Paul Senninger, and the Director of International Affairs at the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and former Secretary General of BCLD since the launch of the latter until September 2019, Cindy Tereba.

The working visit began with a visit to RE-NT/WeDress Collective, a startup created in 2018 active in the sharing economy, which aims to transform the fashion industry into a zero waste industry through the setting up a clothing rental and loan platform. With its technology to save information about the material composition and the design process of the articles, the processes of renting, reselling and recycling clothes are facilitated for the manufacturers, the merchants as well as for the final consumers.

Minister Fayot then had a working lunch with the honorary consuls of Luxembourg in Germany, CEO of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and honorary president of the BCLD, Carlo Thelen, and several BCLD representatives. Over lunch, after having drawn up an inventory of the economic situation in Luxembourg and the successive crises since he took office, Minister Fayot, made an appeal to accelerate the green transition and digital economy towards the implementation of new business models (circular economy, sharing economy, social innovation). Carlo Thelen also spoke about the problems linked to the energy crisis and the ways to overcome it, and focused more particularly on the circular economy.

This was followed by a meeting between Minister Fayot and Minister Habeck. The implementation of the temporary crisis framework (TCF) put in place at European level and intended to provide a framework for aid mechanisms aimed at offsetting the rise in energy prices for businesses was at the heart of discussion. The ministers also discussed the gas supply difficulties encountered by the industry as well as the lack of manpower that the two countries are facing. Together, the ministers also discussed some of the projects carried out jointly between Luxembourg and Germany, particularly in the field of cloud computing and the decarbonisation of industry. They also agreed on the importance of introducing new indicators to measure the well-being of populations, Germany having, like Luxembourg, introduced a “Well-being GDP”.

Presentation and meeting of several member companies of the Impact Hub Berlin

Minister Fayot also attended a presentation of the Impact Hub Berlin, located in the CRCLR House.

The CRCLR House is a newly constructed, affordable building from repurposed materials with the aim of providing creative workspace for the growing circular economy community in Berlin. In November 2021, Impact Hub Berlin took over the premises of the CRCLR.

Impact Hub Berlin is one of 100 Impact Hubs spread across 60 countries worldwide (including seven in Germany alone) and comprising 24,000 members. A collaborative space and incubator for innovation, it brings together under one roof a community of creators of change stimulated within a collaborative ecosystem of innovators and united by the deep conviction that the entrepreneurial spirit can change the world. Community members aspire to build socially, environmentally and financially sustainable businesses to shape a better future for people and the planet.

Minister Fayot met with four startups installed within the hub's infrastructure:

• LXSY: an architecture office that focuses on human-centered design and promotes social and ecological sustainability and neighborhood integrity in all phases of the projects it carries out;
• Concular: actively optimises the carbon footprint and residual value of materials by implementing circularity across the entire building life cycle;
• Made of Air: makes low-carbon materials that can transform mobility products, consumer goods and the environment; and
• Skyseed: which, with the help of drones and pellet seeds, participates in the reforestation and deforestation of forests, by sustainably storing CO2 and ensuring the preservation of biodiversity.

Gala evening for the 10th anniversary of the Business Club Luxemburg-Deutschland

The day ended with a gala dinner organised to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the BCLD.

Officially created in July 2012 and sponsored by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and the Luxembourg Embassy in Berlin, the BCLD is a network of entrepreneurs established in Germany which targets both German companies already active on the Luxembourg market or interested in expanding their activities in the Grand Duchy, and to Luxembourg companies already present on the German market or in the process of expanding into Germany. Founding members of the club include ArcelorMittal, Enovos Deutschland, Kühne + Nagel, Luxair Cargo Deutschland and Paul Wurth. Today, the BCLD has nearly 100 members.

After a brief speech by Axel Gränitz, President and CEO of the Polygon Group and acting President of the BCLD, His Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke gave a speech in which he gave a retrospective of the first ten years of the BCLD and underlined the success of the initiative that was launched in 2012 following the state visit of the sovereigns of Luxembourg to the Federal Republic of Germany. The Hereditary Grand Duke did not fail to stress how important Luxembourg-German friendship is in the current context of successive deep crises.

Minister Fayot mentioned a large number of areas of collaboration between the two countries, particularly in the space sector, health and information technologies and the circular economy. In addition to being Luxembourg's leading partner country in terms of trade, a large number of industries originating from Germany are established in Luxembourg and are active in various fields, such as Dussmann, Cosmolux, Webasto and Vossloh Cogifer Kihn.

Minister Fayot said: “It is an honour to be able to celebrate ten years of the Business Club Luxemburg-Deutschland, which in the space of ten years has contributed substantially to strengthening bilateral relations between our two countries. Germany is a key partner for Luxembourg in many areas. In the turbulent times we are currently experiencing, it is essential to surround ourselves with reliable partners, which is why the German-Luxembourgish friendship and the mutual trust that we have in each other are all the more important today".

The session concluded with a speech by Franziska Brantner, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection in Germany.