During a visit by Christian Dürr, Chairman of the FDP parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Ostfriesland and Papenburg and the Emder Hafenförderungsgesellschaft e. V. (EHFG) campaigned for more money from the federal government for the ports in the IHK district. Former FDP member of the state parliament Hillgriet Eilers from Emden initiated the visit.

During a tour of the port of Emden on board the MS "Atlantis" with representatives from the seaports of Emden, Leer and Papenburg, IHK President Dr. Bernhard Brons urged the federal government to make a greater contribution to the expansion of infrastructure in the seaports. "The federal government must provide significantly more than the current 38 million euros for all ports together to ensure that the energy transition it has initiated succeeds. We had already expected the Chancellor to make this clear at the 13th National Maritime Conference in Bremen in September. After all, our seaports are essential for the German export industry and for the success of the energy transition," said Brons. He also referred to the economics ministers of the northern German federal states, who recently called for an increase in these funds to 400 million euros from the federal government at their conference in Warnemünde.

Dürr stated: "Without the maritime industry, we will not be able to achieve the growth we need." However, he did not want to let the federal states off the hook. After all, they are originally responsible for the seaports, emphasized the former state politician from Niedersachsen.

Manfred de Vries and Reinhard Hegewald from EHFG used the trip through the port to draw the attention of the FDP leader to the need for a second railroad bascule bridge running parallel to the current bridge. de Vries: "Almost all freight traffic into and out of our port passes over this bottleneck. A failure would not only lead to massive logistics problems in Emden, but would also bring the supply of vehicles from other production sites to a complete standstill within two to three days due to the associated backlog." Hegewald urged Dürr to lobby the Federal Ministry of Transport for the construction of this redundant bridge, which is also used by a significant proportion of holidaymakers traveling to Ostfriesland by train.