New Year’s Reception in Eschborn: Strengthening the Capital Market – Together

From complaining to taking action

In her first opening address of the New Year’s Reception in her position as Supervisory Board Chair, Clara Streit welcomed the Chancellor to his former place of work as a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Börse Group. She encouraged him in his reform agenda for strengthening the capital market and emphasized: “For Germany and Europe, the motto now must be: from complaining to taking action.” At the same time, she emphasized the global nature of Deutsche Börse Group, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of own IPO this week, and its stakeholders.

Epochal change as an opportunity

In his keynote, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on his audience to work together to strengthen Europe’s sovereignty and global competitiveness. He said that the opportunity to do so arose from the “epochal change” that the world was currently experiencing. He pointed to the EU's agreement with India on a free trade zone, which would create a new partnership based on mutual respect. He referred to successes in strengthening capital market-based pension provision in Germany and announced further reforms that would represent a “paradigm shift.” He also called for new EU merger control legislation, arguing that the relevant market for European companies was now the global market. In addition, he saw great potential in promoting European start-ups and cutting-edge research.

Leading the Transformation

Stephan Leithner took up the term of “epochal change” and emphasized that we at Deutsche Börse Group wanted to take a leading role in shaping the transformation. The “Leading the Transformation” strategy contributed to Europe's autonomy by providing integrated, efficient, and innovative infrastructure for the financial markets. In doing so, Deutsche Börse Group supported urgently needed structural transformations, from reforming pension provision and financing corporate investment in globally competitive technology to promoting European champions.

The concluding discussion between the German Chancellor and Stephan Leithner on stage covered a wide range of topics, from geopolitics to private wealth creation via shareholdings. Tongue in cheek, the Chancellor expressed his hope that the number of shareholders in Germany could double from the current 14 million to 28 million by the end of the decade. With this, both set the tone for the evening. The event provided fresh impetus for the new year and spread optimism. To quote the Chancellor: “The glass is not half empty, but half full.”