Brussels/Frankfurt, 10^th September 2020 – Commenting on the 8th round of negotiations for a free trade agreement between the EU and Great Britain, Thilo Brodtmann, Executive Director of the VDMA, says:

“So far, the mechanical engineering industry still hoped that the EU and Great Britain would find a solution on the Brexit conflict at the last minute. This hope has been reduced to an absolute minimum by the behaviour of Great Britain in the past few days. Boris Johnson's announcement that he will not honour already made commitments is a serious affront to all those who are still interested in finding a practicable solution for Britain's withdrawal from the EU. The British government is showing quite clearly that it is no longer interested in a constructive solution.

The behaviour of the British government is irresponsible, as it further exacerbates the economic crisis, especially in Great Britain. This is not good news for the European export-oriented mechanical engineering industry neither, even though many companies have already made arrangements for a hard Brexit. All companies that have not yet developed measures for a hard Brexit must start doing so as soon as possible.”

A photo of Thilo Brodtmann, Executive Director of VDMA, can be found here.

The VDMA represents around 3300 German and European companies in the mechanical engineering industry. The industry represents innovation,

export orientation, medium-sized companies and employs around four million people in Europe, more than one million of them in Germany.

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