The BCCG Rhine-Main Region cordially invites you and your colleagues to our symposium:

The new European defence landscape – financial , economic and technological implications

Date: Friday, 23 January 2026
Time: 14:00 h – 16:00 h CET
Location: Villa Bonn, Siesmayerstraße 12, 60323 Frankfurt am Main

Please register using the form on the page below.

Germany has changed its constitution to allow a giant leap forward in defence spending. As the latest – and certainly the most vocal – of successive US presidents calling for greater defence spending by Europe’s NATO members, President Trump has prevailed upon the Europeans to agree targeted defence spending of 5% of GDP by the early 2030s. In Germany and elsewhere in the European Union, large-scale funding is starting to emerge for start-ups and growth companies as well as established defence firms.

Agenda:
14:00 h: Opening remarks
14.05 h: Session I : The big picture – macroeconomic, political , strategic and financial considerations
15.00 h: Session II: Micro economic issues: How can government, military planners, finance and industry interlock in Practice?
16.00 h: End of the symposium

Thorny questions abound:
•What kind of a war should Europe be prepared to fight and what industry segments will be most affected by the re-equipment boom?
•Are the targets realistic? Can Europe meet them without causing political and economic stress, industrial bottlenecks and inflation?
•If Russia, the United States and Ukraine agree an end to the war, will Europe relent in its defence efforts?
• Germany, in all sectors of industry, has been exemplary after 1945 in turning swords into ploughshares. Will it be equally successful, in a changed world, to convert ploughshares into swords – especially considering that anti-European and pro-Russian parties now have a a blocking minority in the German Bundestag.
• How will cross-border defence partnerships work out in future – not just between France and Germany (where there have been numerous examples of flagging cooperation in defence in recent years) but also including the non-EU UK, Italy and other countries?
• Can the UK participate in a reasonably smooth and efficient fashion, and without undue political disputes, in planned stepped-up financing efforts by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank?
• What role will be played by private sector financing efforts – e.g. through banks and asset management companies (from both EU and non-EU Europe), linking up with public sector pension funds and sovereign funds from Europe and further afield?
• How much expected European budgetary spending will be channelled towards American defence companies?
• How will the new European financing mechanisms decided on 19 December to alleviate Ukrainian financial pressures in the next two years affect the overall European rearmament effort?
• What organisational and management changes are needed across industry, finance and commerce to make best use of the new possibilities?

To discuss these issues, the BCCG is convening a small high-level group of financial, economic and technological experts for a two hour closed-door symposium.

Speakers include

• Frank Scheidig, Global Head of Senior Executive Banking, DZ Bank & BCCG regional chairman

• Christian Kopf, Head of Fixed Income and FX, Union Investment Institutional GmbH

• Cristina Checherita-Westphal, Senior Team Lead Economist, Fiscal Policies Division, Directorate General Economics European Central Bank

• Matthias Wittenburg, Senior Executive Advisor, PwC

• Sonja Marten, Chief Economist, DZ BANK

• Prof. David Marsh, chairman of OMFIF and author of Can Europe Survive? The Story of a Continent in a Fragmented World (Yale University Press)

• Matthias Wittenburg, Senior executive advisor, PwC Strategy& (consulting arm of PwC) & LtCol (Res) in the German Army

• Wen-Wen Lindroth, Head, Global Industrial Credit at GIC

• Niklas Garnadt, Senior European Economist – Germany Coverage, Goldman Sachs

Moderation: Prof. David Marsh

Participation Notes:

Please note that photographs and footage might be taken at this event, which will be used for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in our social media channels. Please contact us, if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this.