Events - 2021

The GIUK Board and Advisory Council had a very successful Online Meeting with the German Ambassador to the UK, HE Andreas Michaelis, on Wednesday, 17 March and discussed the challenges facing German business with COVID19 and Post-Brexit with him. We also talked about relations between the UK and Germany, very important to the Ambassador, and we will continue to support him in his endeavour. The UK has left the EU but not Europe and relations between the two major countries, the UK and Germany, are just as vital now and for the future as before.

We had a very rewarding online meeting with Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt, Minister for Investment at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to discuss the challenges facing German business with COVID-19 and the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. However, as I have said on many occasions, we will not leave the UK, one of Germany`s most important locations and markets worldwide, and we look forward to a good future in the UK. We were very grateful to the Minister for answering all our questions and inviting us to another online meeting in few months to keep up to date.

We had a good online meeting on Wednesday, 28th April, from 2-2.50pm with some 15 members and the Minister from the German Embassy taking part.  Unfortunately Terry Sargeant, our Chairman and Chief Executive, could not join the meeting because he had an online meeting with his board in Germany so Dr Atenstaedt, our President, chaired it.

He talked about our online meeting with Lord Grimstone on 14 April which was very rewarding and that the Minister asked for another online meeting with us in a few months.  He has in the meantime established a new Investment Council to advise him on foreign investment into the UK.  We welcome that the chief executives of four German companies are on the Council, Deutsche Post DHL, RWE Renewables, Airbus UK and Siemens UK. 

Dr Atenstaedt also mentioned that he has invited the Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, as a possible next speaker from Government and Terry Sargeant is going to ask a chief executive of a British company for another online meeting.

Finally, Dr Atenstaedt gave an overview of our `New Survey Amongst German Business in the UK: Many Post-Brexit Challenges`, the results of which we sent out last week to all 35 companies who took part, this is now on our website and was mentioned on LinkedIn.