Every country, region etc. has an in-bound foreign investment "encouragement" body. Can you imagine how difficult it must be to work for one in Germany (or for that matter most of the EU) with today's high Euro and case studies like Nokia disclosing it will pay over $ 300 million to close its German plant? And for Nokia to get bad mouthed and painted as a villain when it decides not just after a year or two - but after a decade - to move locations?
With today's information about global talent pools and information sharing between human resource, real estate, travel executives in multi-national companies such experiences just do not go unnoticed...they certainly do not get rewarded.
The local governments and worker's unions in Germany may not be as sensitive to that but the national government and the EU certainly should see how winning this short term battle negatively affects their long term positioning. I can see companies signing shorter term deals and putting early exit clauses and other safeguards in such dealings. And German companies should expect to be held to similar standards with their investments around the world.
