{"id":635378,"date":"2025-12-16T05:02:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T05:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/635378\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T05:02:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T05:02:19","slug":"friedrich-merz-puts-germany-in-an-unfamiliar-position-out-front-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/635378\/","title":{"rendered":"Friedrich Merz puts Germany in an unfamiliar position: Out front \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ahead of a key meeting of European leaders on Thursday, Merz is depicting the looming decision on whether to leverage frozen Russian central bank assets in the EU as a test of whether Europe can still stand up for itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet us not deceive ourselves. If we do not succeed in this, the European Union\u2019s ability to act will be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/eu-kaja-kallas-using-russian-assets-fund-ukraine-looks-increasingly-difficult\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">severely damaged for years<\/a>, if not for a longer period,\u201d Merz said on Monday. \u201cAnd we will show the world that, at such a crucial moment in our history, we are incapable of standing together and acting to defend our own political order on this European continent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2213727880-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7665669\"  \/>Friedrich Merz\u2019s predecessors, Olaf Scholz and Angela Merkel, were reluctant to put the country in such an outspoken lead role internationally or within the EU. |  Maja Hitij\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In a reflection of his government\u2019s new assertiveness, Merz has made Berlin a nexus of diplomacy over a potential peace deal. On Sunday and Monday he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. On Monday evening, many of Europe\u2019s most powerful leaders converged over dinner in Berlin to discuss the outlines of a possible deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBerlin is now at the center of very important diplomatic talks and decisions,\u201d Zelenskyy said Monday. \u201cThese talks are always complex, never easy, but they were very productive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merz, too, standing alongside the Ukrainian leader, appeared to play up the role Germany has assumed in recent negotiations. \u201cWe have seen great diplomatic momentum \u2014 perhaps the greatest since the start of the war,\u201d he said. \u201cWe now have the chance for a genuine peace process for Ukraine. This seedling is still small, but the opportunity is real.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merz oversteps<\/p>\n<p>But Merz\u2019s efforts to put Germany forward as a key EU leader on Ukraine and other matters, from defense to trade, are also replete with risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of a key meeting of European leaders on Thursday, Merz is depicting the looming decision on whether&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[13402,1442,473,5293,2000,299,805,1945,1824,2348,129858,2597,809,122878,7337,811,7070,1201,657,49,2601,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-635378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-angela-merkel","9":"tag-competition","10":"tag-defense","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-foreign-policy","15":"tag-friedrich-merz","16":"tag-germany","17":"tag-history","18":"tag-jared-kushner","19":"tag-military","20":"tag-negotiations","21":"tag-norbert-rottgen","22":"tag-olaf-scholz","23":"tag-security","24":"tag-steve-witkoff","25":"tag-trade","26":"tag-ukraine","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","29":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115727496170564265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}