For Europe to succeed, we need to let go more often – life is about choices!
Geopolitically, 2026 has started with a few bangs and promises even greater uncertainty ahead. Yet Europe is still only slowly waking up to the urgent need to respond more quickly to a rapidly changing environment. This is not just about accelerating our military defence capabilities. Among other things, it is equally about strengthening cyber defence and reinforcing societal resilience to combat the rise of populism and misinformation. On all these fronts, we are being challenged by both state and non-state actors, sometimes even working in tandem.
As Lord Palmerston famously observed, “only our interests are eternal and perpetual, and it is our duty to follow them.” Europe would do well to remind itself of this more often. Encouragingly, European interests have become more closely aligned of late. Recent German-British initiatives such as the Trinity House Agreement and the Kensington Treaty are just two of many examples that clearly reflect this growing convergence across the continent.
In the autumn of 2025, I highlighted the urgent need to reform our economies – above all in terms of speed and efficiency. Furthermore, governments, and societies more broadly, tend to pursue too many priorities at once and risk losing focus. Going forward, sharper prioritisation will be essential. But prioritisation also means letting go. Societies must accept that they cannot have everything, just as governments must accept and communicate that they cannot deliver everything. As in business, it is often impossible to satisfy everyone fully. Life is about trade-offs, and in the interest of efficiency and effectiveness we also have to accept that genuine mistakes will be made – the Germans call it “Fehlerkultur”, even if they do not always apply it.
All this makes close cooperation between business, government and society more important than ever. Against this backdrop, the German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce, together with the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of German Industries, will organise the first-ever Germany-UK Business-Government Forum on 27 April in Berlin (details to follow). We hope to see many of our members there, as the aim of the Forum is to develop tangible strategies for how governments and businesses can work more closely together to jointly increase our resilience and create a framework in which the necessary economies of scale and scope can be achieved, enabling us to generate the resources needed to successfully address the truly pressing global challenges ahead.
Dr Ulrich Hoppe
Hauptgeschäftsführer
Deutsch-Britische Industrie- und Handelskammer
