Federal Minister Altmaier meets with Spanish Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism

Federal Minister Peter Altmaier today met with the Spanish Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Ms Reyes Maroto. Their talks focused on industry-policy and trade-policy issues, including a long-term European industry strategy with the core elements of promoting innovation, improving framework conditions in competition law, and protecting and strengthening European key industries, e.g. by creating pan-European industrial consortia in the fields of microelectronics and battery cell production.

Federal Minister Altmaier said: “A competitive industry is an indispensable component of the European economy. Securing and strengthening its competitiveness is one of the main tasks for European economic policy and a precondition for growth and prosperity in Europe. Germany therefore supports the development of a long-term European industry strategy comprising concrete measures to ensure that our industry continues to be fit for global competition. We are exchanging views on this with other EU Member States, including Spain, and we will pass on the outcome of our talks to the next European Commission.”

Germany and Spain have a long tradition of close economic relations. In 2018, Germany exported goods worth €44.3 billion to Spain and imported products worth €32.5 billion from Spain. The volume of trade totalled €76.8 billion.