Energy, armaments, shipping companies
Danes and Germans are cooperating like never before
By Céline Joufffrau and Andrea Sellmann
April 4, 2024, 12:00 p.m
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Denmark is a good economic partner for Germany. The Ukraine war has brought both countries closer together than ever, and not just in the area of energy. Denmark and Germany are also relying on cooperation on the world’s oceans.
Except for the land border with Germany, Denmark borders the sea on all sides, and the wind often whistles quite loudly: back in 1991, the Danes built the world’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of Lolland. Since then, the country has gained a lot of expertise and has become a good energy partner for Germany.
Benny Egholm Sørensen has been paving the way for German companies to move to Denmark for more than three decades. In the energy sector in particular, the potential for cross-border cooperation is “infinite”. German companies “are striving hard for Denmark because they know that we are very strong in this area,” says the Dane in the new podcast episode of “Wirtschaft Welt & Weit”. A trend that has intensified since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Europe is striving for “strategic autonomy,” confirms Philipp Schröder, professor of international economics at Aarhus University. Converting wind power into green hydrogen is also a high priority in Denmark. This applies not only to research and development, but also to the infrastructure: a pipeline is intended to strengthen German-Danish cooperation.
Partnership between shipping companies
Where else are Germany and Denmark moving closer together? In the new podcast episode, host Andrea Sellmann and her guests Benny Egholm Sørensen and Philipp Schröder also look at the armament sector, because in the military sector our neighbors are primarily known for their radar and surveillance technology. How important is this for the West? And what exactly are the major shipping companies planning? The German Hapag-Lloyd and the Danish Maersk want to operate in partnership with part of their fleet from next year.
Philipp Schröder comes from Berlin, but has lived in Denmark for a long time. He is Professor of International Economics at the School of Business and Social Sciences – Aarhus University. And Benny Egholm Sørensen is the contact person for German medium-sized companies interested in Scandinavia at the BVMW foreign office in Silkeborg, Denmark. Overall, he has been advising German medium-sized companies on entering the Danish market for more than 30 years.
What does Germany have to do to continue to play an important role in the economic world of tomorrow? Who do we depend on? Which countries benefit from the new world situation? Andrea Sellmann discusses this with relevant experts in the ntv podcast “Wirtschaft Welt & Weit”.
You can find all episodes in the ntv app or wherever podcasts are available: at RTL+ music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or Deezer. For all other podcast apps you can use the RSS feed.