We support sensible and pragmatic Corporate Governance principles and recognise their central importance in guiding our activities. The principles of responsible and good enterprise management constitute the core of our Corporate Governance principles (http://www.hannover-re.com/resources/cc/generic/CGprinciples-e.pdf). Our efforts are intended to ensure integrity at all times in our dealings with business partners, staff, shareholders and other stakeholder groups. On this basis Hannover Re supports the principles of value-based and transparent enterprise management and supervision as defined in the German Corporate Governance Code (DCGK). The Code Report for 2011 published by the independent Berlin Center of Corporate Governance on acceptance of the Code’s recommendations and suggestions found that, as in previous years, Hannover Re again ranks among the top companies listed on the DAX and MDAX with a degree of fulfilment of 98.9% in its compliance with the provisions of the Code.

This above-average level of compliance testifies to the considerable importance that Hannover Re attaches to good enterprise management and supervision in the spirit of state-of-theart Corporate Governance. Following thorough revision of the Rules of Procedure of the Supervisory Board in the previous year and specification of the goal that the number of women on the Supervisory Board should be increased, a woman was for the first time elected to this body as a shareholder representative on the occasion of a special election to the Supervisory Board held at the Annual General Meeting in 2011. The Supervisory Board shall do its utmost to further increase the quota of women in the context of the upcoming fresh elections to the Supervisory Board in 2012. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board also considered at length the issue of sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. Hannover Re’s strategic orientation towards sustainability forms a key element of its corporate strategy. The aim here is to achieve commercial success on the basis of a solid business model in accordance with the needs of our staff and the company as well as with an eye to protecting the environment and conserving natural resources. We strive to reduce as far as possible the greenhouse gas emissions produced by our day-to-day business activities in order to come closer to reaching our goal of carbon neutrality. In so doing, we are demonstrably taking responsibility for a sustainable future (http://www.hannoverre.com/csr/index.html).

In addition, we shall support our shareholders in the exercise of their rights at this year’s Annual General Meeting even more than we have in the past by making postal voting possible for the first time.