In the negotiations to form a "Grand Coalition" of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 German elections, he was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on digital policy, led by Dorothee Bär and Brigitte Zypries. In similar negotiations after the 2017 federal elections, he was part of the same working group, this time led by Bär, Helge Braun and Lars Klingbeil.