The federal government invites international and domestic companies to the 'Invest in Germany' summit to promote investments in Germany.
CEOs of pharmaceutical companies are canceling their participation in the 'Invest in Germany' summit, mainly because of austerity plans in the healthcare sector.
In the energy industry, unclear rules for battery storage, for example, cause uncertainty; Companies criticize additional requirements for network fee exemptions and threaten to be less willing to invest.
Investors complain about contradictions in German energy policy and demand a clear commitment from the federal government to promote the energy transition and electrification.
Düsseldorf, Munich. Shortly before the federal government's important investor event in Berlin, the mood in some sectors is bad. Several important energy laws have been pending for months and are unsettling companies. And in the pharmaceutical industry, the savings plans in the healthcare system are causing frustration.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his cabinet want to signal that investments are welcome and that Germany is an attractive location for them. That's why, with the help of their investment representative Martin Blessing, they have invited domestic and international companies to the “Invest in Germany” summit on Monday and Tuesday. Many CEOs can have personal discussions with the Chancellor and ministers there.
The timing is basically good. Yves Meyer-Bülow, partner at infrastructure investor I Squared, says: "Germany has a historic opportunity to turn its infrastructure into a competitive advantage again. After two decades of inadequate public investment, there is a lot of catching up to do."
Roman Waleczek, Managing Director at the financial services provider Rothschild, also says: "Germany's industrial location offers great investment opportunities, especially when it comes to scaling and modernizing the economy. The 'Invest in Germany Summit' sends an important signal of this."
But the concrete policies of the past few months make many companies anything but confident. Some criticize behind closed doors, others openly - and a number of managers have even canceled participation in the summit.
“The left and right hands don’t know what the other is doing.”
The discontent is particularly great in the pharmaceutical industry. According to Handelsblatt information, with one exception, none of the 36 international pharmaceutical companies that are part of the delegation of the Biopharmaceutical CEOs Roundtable (BCR) are coming to the summit. The only female CEO in the industry to take part is said to be Sanofi boss Belén Garijo, who headed the Darmstadt-based Merck group until the end of April 2026.
The BCR is a global association of the leading minds in the global pharmaceutical industry. The delegation had already met in Berlin in November 2025 and also spoke with Chancellor Merz and members of the federal government, among other things, about the framework conditions for pharmaceutical innovations.
The summit cancellation has a history: Back in June, the Handelsblatt exclusively reported that Pfizer boss Albert Bourla and Eli Lilly boss Dave Ricks had canceled their participation. Bourla justified this in a letter to Merz by saying that the austerity plans in the healthcare system jeopardized the necessary planning security.
There is growing anger in the industry about the government's austerity measures and the lack of a basis for discussion with the Chancellor. There was no response from the Chancellor to the letter.
Eli Lilly had already announced in June that it would halve a planned 2.3 billion euro investment in a plant in Rhineland-Palatinate. Boehringer Ingelheim also stopped investments of more than 900 million euros.
Other international pharmaceutical bosses are also closely monitoring German investment conditions. “Ricks is following through with his decision to withdraw investments, and the heads of the other pharmaceutical giants are also following this,” says a person familiar with the matter.
Eli Lilly boss Ricks explained his decision to the Handelsblatt in clear words: "There is a whole department in the federal government that is supposed to attract foreign investment. Ironically, in the same week of the investment withdrawal, this department sent me an email asking whether I would like to speak at their conference in the fall. The left and right hands don't know what the other is doing."
A key sector, of all things, is missing from the Federal Government's event, which is actually supposed to give international players confidence. An insider says: "It's a bit absurd that pharmaceuticals should be Germany's industry of the future, but nobody comes to the summit."
Companies are threatened with a lower willingness to invest
Many companies in the energy sector are also dissatisfied. In several important areas it is unclear which rules should apply in the future.
The topic of battery storage is causing a lot of excitement. There is hardly any other technology where Germany can score as highly as it does with this one. Sjoerd Bazen, Managing Director at battery storage developer Return Energy, says: “Germany is one of the most important growth markets for battery storage in Europe.” The company's goal is to install one gigawatt of battery storage capacity in Germany every year starting next year, investing between 750 million and 1.2 billion euros annually.
But such ambitions are currently facing a setback: the companies had relied on the fact that all battery storage systems that go into operation in Germany by August 2029 would be exempt from electricity network fees. This privilege makes the projects particularly attractive.
It has been clear for a long time that the liberation should end in 2029. But now the Federal Network Agency, which reports to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, wants to introduce an additional condition: battery storage projects must provide evidence of a final investment decision by the end of 2026 in order to benefit from the network fee exemption. In order to prove such an investment decision, operators have to take high financial risks - and yet cannot be sure that they will ultimately be guaranteed exemption.
Till Stehr, analyst at Modo Energy, says: "The conditions under which the Federal Network Agency accepts a final investment decision are not necessarily based on the usual industry standards. This means that projects for which a final investment decision has already been made internally have to be relaunched, for example with other orders."
Return Energy has therefore written a letter together with other industry companies and large investors, which is available to the Handelsblatt. It says: "Investors view Germany as an overall market. If existing framework conditions are changed retroactively or at short notice, this has a broad impact. There is a risk of a higher risk perception, rising financing costs and an overall lower willingness to invest."
Germany is also at risk of losing investments in offshore wind energy. States usually advertise areas for such wind farms at sea in auctions and sometimes guarantee the winners of the auctions financial support. In Germany, however, the last auction took place in August 2025, and the conditions were so bad that no company submitted a bid.
Frank Klose, senior partner and energy expert at management consultancy BCG, says: “Many European countries have had problems with their auction regimes, but elsewhere the system has already been simplified and investment risks have been greatly reduced.” Germany, on the other hand, needs a very long time to find a new auction system.
Martin Neubert, Chief Operating Officer of the Danish investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), makes a similar statement: "In the offshore sector, there were also tenders in Denmark that did not work. But Denmark solved the problem within 18 months. In Germany, discussions have been going on for two years now and legal concerns have been pointed out."
There is no reason to fear that the federal government will deter investors on a large scale with regulatory failures: Germany is too important as a market and offers too great opportunities to withdraw completely, which can be heard in almost all discussions with investors.
Large investment companies like the Canadian company Brookfield look more at the broad guidelines than at the political details. Brookfield partner Ignacio Paz-Ares says: “We see promising opportunities to invest in Germany’s energy infrastructure and strengthen the country’s long-term industrial competitiveness.”
But what many people are missing is a goal in which direction Germany really wants to steer in the coming years. CIP manager Neubert says: "The Iran war in particular makes it clear that Germany and Europe have to go through an important transformation. But the federal government is sending contradictory signals as to whether it wants to push forward or slow down the energy transition and electrification."
