German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has called for the European Union to strengthen its independence from the United States. “We must become more sovereign and more independent, especially more technologically sovereign and independent. And yes, that also applies to the United States of America,” Merz said on Monday evening at the annual opening event of the Deutsche Börse Group in Eschborn, Hesse. He added that he regretted it, but “the transatlantic relationship has changed.”
Merz said that the EU needs reforms. “In Europe, we have squandered enormous growth potential in recent decades through delayed reforms, through unnecessary restrictions on entrepreneurial freedom, through overregulation and perfection in the wrong places.” Because of this, Europeans are no longer as economically strong as they could be.
“It requires a radical return to what is essential. We need ambition, we need courage, and we need drive so that this Europe becomes politically capable of action again,” Merz continued. Alongside greater sovereignty and independence, he said a major task is making Europe “capable of defending itself under its own power.” He also stated that the economic conditions for European businesses must become “competitive again.”
In his speech, Merz also pointed to opportunities. “All around us,” he said, there are “emerging, mostly democratic states with expanding markets that are explicitly looking for what we Europeans have to offer.” These are “partnerships based on mutual consideration, mutual respect, and on the condition of rules and reliability.”
According to Merz, this outlines a path toward “a sovereign, free, peaceful and economically inspiring Europe in a new world order.” Germany could “be part of, and if we do it right, perhaps even become the center of a dynamic, agile network of sovereign states that continue, for the good of all, to rely on multilateralism and free trade.”
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