Munich. The IRE and Tobias Gotthardt have a close friendship and collaboration for many years, which has also intensified since his appointment as Bavarian State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Energy. During a visit to the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs in Munich the IRE delegation, consisting of Franz Schausberger, Joachim Fritz and Stefan Haböck, discussed ideas for joint events this year on the topics of cross-border cooperation between Bavaria and Austria's federal states, decentralization and strengthening of regional SMEs.

State Secretary Tobias Gotthardt emphasized that bureaucratization in Europe is still one of the greatest burdens on small and medium-sized companies and that there is an urgent need for action on the part of national governments and European institutions. Company handovers are also becoming more and more of a problem. In addition, cooperation in the German-Austrian Danube region, i.e. the regions along the Danube, must be intensified. We also need to talk more about the transit problem.

In the conversation, IRE chairman Franz Schausberger also expressed his concern about the increasing centralization in Europe, which is primarily coming from many nation states. After every crisis, states centralize, even though subsidiarity and therefore decentralization are a basic European principle. State Secretary Gotthardt and IRE Chairman Schausberger agreed that this issue would be addressed more closely together.

Photo: Aaron Gottardi, Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft