Yesterday (18-March) in Berlin, on the concluding day of his St Patrick’s Day Programme, Minister Simon Harris travelled to the German Federal Ministry of Finance for a bilateral meeting with his counter-part, Parliamentary State Secretary Mr Steffen Kampeter.
The purpose of this meeting was to brief the State Secretary on Minister Harris’s recently published International Financial Services Strategy. More specifically the Minister updated State Secretary Kampeter on his recent meetings with several German multi-nationals from this sector, and his following engagement with members of Berlin’s start-up and venture capitalist scene active in the area of FinTech. It was noted that this was an area of shared interest and future cooperation between the two administrations.
The meeting also presented an opportunity for Minister Harris to update his counterpart on economic progress in Ireland and for an exchange of views on economic matters at the national and European level.
The two Ministers also discussed the proposal for a European Capital Markets’ Union (CMU), the current ECB programme of Quantitive Easing, and implementation of the European Commission’s investment programme were also discussed in terms of addressing the shadow of deflation and returning growth to the Eurozone over the short- and medium-term respectively.
On CMU, Minister Harris informed of the Department of Finance’s forthcoming public consultation – to be launched on the 31st of this month. Both sides agreed on looking forward to detailed and evidence-based proposals to follow on from the recently launched Commission Green Paper.
On the point of investment, a focus was placed on how to ensure liquidity effectively translates into rentable investment projects. In this regard Minister Harris welcomed State Secretary Kampeter’s outlining Germany’s upcoming G7 Presidency as prioritising Budget-friendly growth strategies, and aiming to re-orient the debate around investment more generally.
After the meeting concluded, Minister Harris noted that,
As Ireland’s economic recovery takes hold, I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet my German counterpart. More than 400 Irish companies are now doing business with Germany. It is essential that we continue to build and strengthen economic links with the largest economy in the Eurozone. On a European level, there are many pressing issues, Ireland looks forward to continuing to engage with its fellow Member States on a range of issues focused on encouraging investment and growth. I found our discussion today to be very constructive and mutually informative for both myself and my counterpart.
Minister Harris concludes his St Patrick’s Day Programme this evening in Cologne.
ENDS
Media Contact: Richard Troy, 087-0641625
