Franco-German digital partnership

October 2015 - Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel and his French counterpart Minister of the Economy, Industry and the Digital Sector Emmanuel Macron held a conference in Paris entitled "accelerating the digital transformation in the economy". More than 400 high-ranking representatives of startups, international companies and public institutions took part in the conference at the invitation of the French president, François Hollande, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip.

Minister Gabriel said: "This conference is creating a new, digital foundation for the proven German-French partnership and driving forward the digital transformation of our economies. This will also help us to design a European digital single market. Three topics are particularly important to us: Firstly, the digital transformation of industry. Secondly, digital innovation, for example how we cooperate on cloud computing and big data. This includes the question of how we can support and connect startups in our countries better - both among themselves and with the established industry. Thirdly, the digital sovereignty that should strengthen our businesses and citizens and contribute to the rapid realisation of a European digital single market."

Six specialist workshops were held prior to the conference on the topics of the data economy, "Industrie 4.0", growth for startups in Europe, electronic invoicing, digital innovation hubs, and the cluster cooperation "Smart Factory & Big Data".