The 68th Annual Congress of the Association of Franco-German Societies for Europe (VDFG-FAFA), held this year under the motto “Civil Society. Committed. Boundless.”, took place in Landau at the beginning of October. The congress was attended by numerous participants, including Professor. Dr. Hannes Kopf, President of the Struktur- und Genehmigungsdirektion Süd and the President of the Communauté de Communes de L’Outre Forêt Paul Heintz, visited our geothermal power plant Naturally Insheim. They were given a detailed explanation of our project and a tour of the plant by company founder Dr. Horst Kreuter.

“The tour of the geothermal project in Insheim and the presentations we heard there showed us how it is possible to develop innovative and sustainable projects in the Upper Rhine Graben without borders and thus make a fruitful contribution to the climate transition based on natural resources for both citizens and the economy,” said Dr. Claus-Michael Allmendinger, Vice President of VDFG für Europa e.V., summing up the visit to the geothermal power plant. It thus became clear that the issues of geothermal energy production and use as well as lithium production from thermal waters are also of great importance to our French neighbors. The close cooperation between France and Germany will continue to be relevant in the future.

The congress, which was sponsored by the Federal Foreign Office, the Franco-German Civic Fund and Vulcan, among others, was opened on October 4 in the Landau Art Nouveau Festival Hall by the two association presidents on the German and French sides, Jochen Hake and Jean-Michel Prats. Alexander Schweitzer, Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate, was on hand to open the congress. Landau’s Lord Mayor Dr. Dominik Geißler and the new Consul General of France in Frankfurt/Main, Nicolas Bergeret, also attended the congress in the Festhalle.