About the Economic Council

The Economic Council (Wirtschaftsrat der CDU e.V.) is a German business association representing the interests of more than 11,000 small and medium sized firms, as well as larger multinational companies. We provide our members with a platform to engage in a continuous dialogue with leading decision makers, both in Germany and Europe. We advocate economic policies which best reflect the principles of a social market economy as envisaged by Ludwig Erhard, Minister for Economic Affairs in the German Federal Republic between 1949 and 1963 and one of the co-founders of the Economic Council.

Members

Our members are drawn from all sectors of the business and entrepreneurial community, including banking and finance, insurance, the automotive and chemical industries, healthcare and high-tech. Members can be companies, independent business executives or freelance professionals.

The diverse nature of our membership yields significant political weight when addingpolicy proposals to the political agenda. We ensure that the principles of the social market economy are taken into account within the decision making process, not only in Berlin and Brussels but also in the German federal states.

What does the Economic Council do?

We organize over 2,000 events annually at all levels of the council. These range from one-off events aimed at highlighting particular areas of interest to regular annual events such as the Europe Symposium, Conference on Energy Policy and Wirtschaftstag. These events are attended by high ranking politicians, academics as well as members of the business community. They attract significant regional and national media coverage.

The way the economic council works reflects the three tier structure of the association with offices in Berlin, the German federal state capitals (with the exception of Bavaria) and Brussels.

Federal Office Berlin

In large part, the work of the Council is carried out in the federal office in Berlin. The most important bodies in that context are the Federal Expert Commissions. There is one such commission for each policy area in which the economic council is involved. The typical work of an expert commission comprises the engagement with high ranking politicians from the respective policy area (facilitating a two-way dialogue between our members and key decision makers), consulting leading academics in the field and on this basis formulating concrete policy proposals which best reflect the interests of our entire membership base.

Expert commissions are chaired by board members, chairmen and chief executives of some of the most renowned companies in Germany. There are expert commissions in the following policy areas:

•    International Economy
•    European Financial Markets and Monetary Policy
•    Taxes, Finance and Budgetary Policy
•    Family Businesses
•    Labour Market
•    Growth and Innovation
•    Internet and Digital Economy
•    Healthcare
•    Energy Policy
•    Environment
•    Urban Development, Construction and Real Estate

•    Transport, Logistics and Infrastructure