At the second and final day of the working visit to the UK, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Etienne Schneider, visited Bristol where an MoU was signed to establish a scientific cooperation between the British National Composite Centre and the future national centre of excellence for composite materials managed by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST).
The pooling of expertise of these two entities will ultimately provide a further boost to Luxembourg oin the composite materials sector which already employs about 1,600 people in the Grand Duchy.
In the presence of Nicolas Buck, President of the FEDIL - Business Federation Luxembourg, Minister Schneider also travelled to London for a meeting with senior representatives of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents all economic sectors, including the financial sector. At the meeting, the UK's largest employers' association representatives expressed their concerns about the consequences for the free movement of persons, capital and concerning access to European funding when the UK should leave the EU.
Following numerous contacts with the economic players in London and Bristol during the working visit, Minister Schneider concluded "The unpredictability as to the political and economic future is palpable in the British entrepreneurial mind. Due to heavy commercial and financial relations that have always been (between our countries), Luxembourg has an interest in working at a European level (to ensure) the UK is not isolated from the EU."
Phoho by Luc Deflorenne © SIP (L-R): Étienne Schneider, Deputy Premier Minister and Minister of the Economy; Josh Hardie, Deputy Director-General CBI ; Nicolas Buck, Président FEDIL
