Dear Mr. Meyer-Landrut,
Dear Mr. Richter,
Dear Mr. Zimmer,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you very much for the invitation to this reception of the German Embassy and the German Aerospace Industries Association in this beautiful Palais Beauharnais.

It is my pleasure to represent Hamburg and the states of Northern Germany exhibiting at the Paris Air Show.

The Air Show points out clearly: Aviation is the industry of ideas and innovations.

Mr. Richter just said it: One in six planes is assembled in Germany - at Airbus in Hamburg to be exact. And with every new generation of airplanes, the fuel consumption of an Airbus-jet is reduced by about a fifth.A remarkable result, made possible by technological advances "made in Germany".

As the third largest hub of the global civil aviation industry, Hamburg is playing a major role in this development.

Airbus, Lufthansa Technik and over 300 suppliers in the metropolitan region cooperate with each other and with research institutes like the German Aerospace Center DLR and the Center for Applied Aeronautical Research ZAL.

They are working hard to make airplanes quieter, safer and more sustainable.

Ladies and Gentlemen, aviation is not only an industry of innovations, it is also the industry of successful international cooperation.

Two weeks ago, I joined the 12,000 Airbus employees celebrating their 50th anniversary at a huge open-air-festival in Hamburg-Finkenwerder.

Airbus is a great example, a model of what strong technological and economical collaboration can achieve on a European level.

France and Germany build the core of the European partnership. Together and with a confident approach to the future, we can build more at Airbus and in Europe as a whole.

I am looking forward to many interesting conversations tonight and wish us all a pleasant time at the German Embassy in Paris.

Thank you very much.

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.