In a speech in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke out in favor of an integrated defense industry, more free trade agreements and the rapid reform of the asylum system. A European asylum system must be adopted before the 2024 European elections, he said in his speech on Europe Day.
The day marks the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration. It was proposed on May 9, 1950 by the then French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman to make a new war between the nations of Europe unthinkable. Schuman’s proposal is seen as the birth of what is now called the European Union.
In addition, the joint purchase of ammunition and the integration of the European armaments industry must be promoted, said Scholz. In the second European keynote speech of his term of office, he also advocated an enlargement of the EU, which could then have more than 500 million citizens.
Scholz believes in a “multipolar world”
Scholz also spoke out clearly against efforts to make the EU a third superpower alongside the USA and China. “Anyone who nostalgically dwells on the dream of a European world power, who serves national great power fantasies, is stuck in the past,” said Scholz. What is needed is a partnership that not only claims equality, but creates it, said Scholz.
“The world of the 21st century will be multipolar,” says Scholz. French President Emmanuel Macron caused a stir a few weeks ago when he said that the EU should not become a US vassal on China, but could be a third pole.
In dealing with China, he supported the line of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: Risks must be reduced – he warned against decoupling from China.
