Overview
The Economic Council ( e.V.) is a major German business and lobby association representing the interests of around 12,000 members and member firms. Members are drawn from all sectors of the German economy including banking and finance, insurance, the automotive and chemical industries, healthcare and high-tech.
The aim of the council is to promote a social market economy based on the principles of Ludwig Erhard, economy minister of the Federal Republic of Germany between 1949 and 1963 and widely regarded as the initiator of Germany’s Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) during the 1950s.
Although the organisation is both financially and ideologically independent it has traditionally had close ties to the free-market liberal wing of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel. For this reason it is referred to as the Economic Council to the CDU, which is in fact the literal translation of its German name. This description can also be attributed to the link with Erhard, who was one of the founding members of the association. The council's president is entitled ex officio to participate in meetings of the CDU Executive as a "permanent guest", including the right to speak.
History
The Economic Council was founded as a coalition of professional German entrepreneurs on 9 December 1963 in Bonn, then the capital of West Germany. The aim of the council was to give firms and entrepreneurs the opportunity to have a greater say in government policy. In the words of Alphons Horten, CDU politician and one of the co-founders of the association, "There was a growing conviction in the business community that politicians should pay more heed to economic reason." An additional aim of the original founders and board members in setting up the council was to act as a counterweight to the increasingly influential employee committees within the CDU party itself.
The 50th anniversary of the council in 2013 was marked by a series of high calibre events, the pinnacle of which was the annual Wirtschaftstag. Guests included Chancellor Angela Merkel, ECB president Mario Draghi, President of the German Industry Federation Ulrich Grillo and Deutsche Bank Co-Chief Jürgen Fitschen.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).