WATCH: Merz Blats EU, Warns Of Protectionist Trap In Fiery Retreat Speech in Brussels | World News

We certainly would not have had this discussion in this form three or four years ago as we are today, because we are confronted with an entirely new geopolitical situation that forces the European Union to act. We want to face this new geopolitical reality. Europe must assert itself, but Europe will only be able to assert itself if it is economically strong, and Europe is economically strong only with a competitive industry. And I repeated it today during our session here. I felt a strong sense of urgency, I have to say. But at the same time, we are united by the willingness to take necessary decisions. Now the European Union has to act swiftly and resolutely, and that willingness has without exception been underlined by all participants. We have an ambitious and comprehensive agenda that we have tasked the Commission with, and the President of the Commission repeated that a few minutes ago from this very same place, that has agreed to set up a road map which will be presented and decided upon at the March Council in Brussels. It aims to be a comprehensive agenda for enhancing the competitiveness of Europe. Three topics play a particularly important part here: that is the single market, second, reducing bureaucracy, and the third topic is international trade. We have expressed a lot of support in that regard. The Commission has the provisional application of the Mercosur agreement indeed once the first South American country ratifies the agreement. This is a good and correct decision. Further free trade agreements are to follow. The one with India has been concluded. I would like to see that it is also ratified as soon as possible. This is an EU-only agreement. This means it does not require the approval of the member states and parliaments, but only the approval of the European institutions. I assume that this can proceed quickly because it also lacks an agricultural section, omitted so that the contentious parts which have often played a role in other agreements with Canada and the Mercosur states should not play a role here. There are further free trade agreements being planned with Australia, with the ASEAN states, with the United Arab Emirates. I support the European Commission moving quickly on this path. We want to be able to respond to unfair trade practices. However, this will need to be carefully examined. We do not want a new European protectionism. But we must be able to defend ourselves against unfair trade practices, such as when markets are flooded with overcapacity or when products are heavily subsidized, are artificially made cheaper. These are topics we discussed and where the Commission will also make proposals. We will now incorporate all these elements into a competition agenda in the next few weeks, which will take the form of a road map to be signed by the Council, the Commission and the Parliament. We will commit to something in a joint document which will then actually be adopted in 2026.

This is a good decision. Perhaps I may say something about the financing of the projects in the European Union. I made it very clear this morning that even though there are other opinions on this, I am in favor of financing projects in the European Union through Eurobonds, for example. I cannot agree. I do not want this, but even if I wanted to, I could not, because the Federal Constitutional Court has forbidden the German government. Very clear limits here. We have incurred European debts in exceptional situations, but those were exceptional situations that are also contractually permissible. However, we are living in a time where the exception becomes the rule. The new era we live in is the new normal. And in this new normal, we must manage with the money we have. Today, it only played a minor role.

Yes, Mr. Delft. To be honest, I'm surprised that you were surprised. We coordinated on some topics again this morning before the informal council. We agree on many, though not all, issues. For example, we discussed the question of unfair trade practices. To what extent does Europe need to protect itself against them? I told him that I do not want the European Union to enter a phase of protectionism. We agree on this. However, we also agree that we must protect ourselves against unfair trade practices. And everyone knows who is meant by this. And on that I am in agreement with the French president, and we presented and advocated this together today, as we discussed this exact topic over lunch. It is clear that there are topics we still need to discuss. The topic of debt financing of the European budget has always been a slightly different point of view between Germany and France. It should also come as no surprise that we remain as we are.