EU as superpower? Scholz distances himself from Macron

German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz has spoken out clearly against attempts to make the European Union a third superpower alongside the United States and China.

“Anyone who nostalgically follows the dream of a European world power that serves national superpower fantasies is stuck in the past,” the social democrat said Tuesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Other countries would “rightly not accept a bipolar or tripolar world order”.

What is needed is a partnership that not only claims equality, but creates it, Scholz said. “The world of the 21st century will be multipolar.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, among others, recently argued for an EU as a global power center alongside the US and China. In an interview with journalists in April, he said that Europe could be a “third pole” and that strategic autonomy is essential to prevent European states from becoming vassals.

Scholz, on the other hand, said in Strasbourg that not less, but more openness, more cooperation are the order of the day to make Europe a good place in the world of tomorrow. «A place that is not above or below other countries and regions. But at eye level with others, at their side,” he added.

According to the German Chancellor, achieving this goal now requires a geopolitical, enlarged, reformed and forward-looking EU. This includes much closer integration of defense efforts and the development of an integrated European defense economy, he explained. Moreover, the course must now be set for the reconstruction of Ukraine. (aeg/sda/dpa)