Preserving Europe’s prosperity through innovation

• BASF boss Hambrecht: Industry is a problem-solver
• Europe’s business leaders present vision for 2025

As the national champion of a group of European business leaders, BASF’s boss Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht has spoken up for Europe. “We need to combine our strengths and focus on the sole opportunity that we have: We need to be more innovative than our competitors,” explained Hambrecht. “Europe is not able to undercut cheap wages in other regions, so it can only be competitive by having better ideas.”

Speaking to German journalists on behalf of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), a forum of top European business leaders, Hambrecht presented a vision for a competitive Europe in 2025. The ERT is in favor of a political framework to ensure sustainable economic growth in Europe. This is the only means of maintaining the high quality of life in Europe, it believes. The ERT has listed more than 50 recommendations for policy action in its Vision.

“Industry is a problem-solver, not a problem-creator as some are eager to claim,” said Hambrecht. He called for open markets and priority for research and education. In view of the importance of Germany’s industry to Europe, Hambrecht appealed to German politicians to pursue the recommendations of the ERT regardless of party interests and the influence of regional interest groups.

Further information can be found at www.ert.eu and www.europeontrack.eu.

About BASF

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals as well as oil and gas. As a reliable partner BASF helps its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €62 billion in 2008 and had approximately 97,000 employees at the end of that year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (AN). Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.

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