German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is due to give a major foreign policy speech in the German parliament on Thursday, following a brief escalation in tensions over Greenland with the United States last week.
US President Donald Trump had repeatedly asserted his claim to the world’s largest island, which belongs to Denmark, and had threatened several European NATO allies with punitive tariffs before backing down.
Last Friday, a special EU summit addressed the consequences of the Greenland crisis.
Twenty minutes are scheduled for Merz’s foreign policy statement in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, followed by 90 minutes of debate.
Lawmakers are also set to discuss the so-called Kritis umbrella law, which aims to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure.
The law would impose stricter obligations on companies operating critical infrastructure – including large energy suppliers and waterworks – to protect their facilities, as well as an obligation to report security-related incidents and fines for violations of the rules.
The protection of such facilities has recently been the subject of intense debate, not least because of a recent arson attack that disrupted parts of Berlin’s electricity supply for days.