In a given speech at Charles de Prague University on Monday, August 29, the German chancellor pleaded for an enlargement of the EU to the east and a strengthening of “European sovereignty”.
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“When, if not now, are we going to build a sovereign Europe? Who, if not us, can protect the values of Europe?” It is by these two questions that Olaf Scholz closed, Monday, August 29, a major speech on the future of Europe, laying the foundations for a profound renewal of the European policy of Germany. Pronounced at Charles de Prague University, in a Czech Republic currently President of the Council of the European Union (EU), he can be read as an echo to the speech of President Emmanuel Macron said to the Sorbonne in the fall of 2017. The French president had never received a response from Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Conscious of the arrogance trial which has often been brought to Germany in the last decade, Olaf Scholz has taken care to specify that it expressed “ideas, reflection tracks, and not ready -made German solutions”. The fact remains that the step crossed is considerable. As he had done a few days after the Russian attack in Ukraine in February, in a speech to the Bundestag which broke seventy years of German discretion in matters of defense and foreign policy, the chancellor freed himself on Monday from red lines observed by Germany in recent years on the European level.
Faced with the criticisms formulated in recent months judging his support for kyiv too hesitant or his lack of strategic vision, Olaf Scholz responds by opening the way to an enlargement of the Union to the East, to a reform of the treaties, to A strengthening of European defense. For the first time, it defines the contours of a “geopolitical Europe”.
more autonomy
“I am committed to the enlargement of the European Union to the countries of the Western Balkans, to Ukraine, to Moldova and, in perspective, to Georgia,” said the German Chancellor, who estimates that This widening to thirty or thirty-six states must go hand in hand with a reform of the decision-making of the Union, in order to gain efficiency. He therefore pleaded for a gradual transition from the principle of unanimity to the majority vote in foreign policy, “but also in other areas such as tax policy”, in other words the ability to lift tax, an extremely sensitive subject in Germany. At the same time, he defends a reform of representativeness within the Union, in order to limit the growth of the European Parliament and the Commission.
taking up the expression of “European sovereignty” dear to the French president, Olaf Scholz supports the idea that Europeans must become “more autonomous in all areas”. The Chancellor thus wants the Union to adopt a strategy “Made in Europe 2030”, on the model of “Made in China 2025”, in order to regain the competitiveness and autonomy lost by Europe on certain technologies of strategic importance , especially compared to China.
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