After Spain it was Germany who decided to create its luxury institution "Meisterkreis – Deutsches Forum für Luxus" in the tradition of the Fondazione Altagamma (Italy), the Comité Colbert (France) and Walpole British Luxury (English). Thus, there are now five such associations – institutions attempting to preserve the reign of luxury, on a European scale – all of them united under the European Cultural and Creative Industries Summit (ECCI).

About twenty renowned German luxury brands are already members (Porsche, Montblanc, Leica, Gagguenau, Talbot Runhof, Robert Weil, Fairmont, A.Lange & Söhne, Hotel Adlon, …). Other foreign labels are also present: Bugatti, Chanel, Dior and Condé Nast publishing. Dior and Chanel, for their part, are members of the Comité Colbert, which has recently opened its ranks to European fashion houses, including Germany’s Montblanc and Leica.

In the short term, industry professionals want to establish a joint plan of action at the European level which will be presented collectively to the various entities in Brussels. In the pipeline is the harmonization of legal and tax rules to facilitate cross-border trade, including e-commerce (70% of Comité Colbert members have an online store).

The observation that 18 of the 25 leading brands in the luxury market are European and that Europe holds 68% of global market share for export of "high quality goods", 75% including Switzerland, has been a boon for this strategy. As has the fact that the sector generates 800,000 jobs in Europe, including 36,000 directly-related jobs and 128,000 indirectly related jobs in France alone (+10% between 2006 and 2010).