{"id":713625,"date":"2026-01-22T18:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/713625\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:41:27","slug":"chancellor-urges-leaders-to-learn-from-germany-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/713625\/","title":{"rendered":"Chancellor urges leaders to learn from Germany \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The German chancellor has warned that the rise of \u201cgreat powers\u201d is shaking the foundations of the old world order, unravelling it at \u201cbreathtaking pace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Friedrich Merz<\/a> said a time of \u201cgreat power politics\u201d had begun, citing Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine<\/a>, China\u2019s move into the \u201cranks of the great powers\u201d and the radical reshaping of US foreign and security policy under Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new world of great powers is being built on power, on strength and when it comes to it, on force. It is not a cosy place,\u201d Mr Merz said, urging leaders at Davos not to accept this new reality and to \u201cshape the future\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

Mr Merz\u2019s speech chimed with the views of Mark Carney, Canada\u2019s prime minister<\/a>, who told the forum on Tuesday that a system of intensifying rivalry between great powers was rupturing the world order.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo days ago, Mark Carney said in this hall, \u2018We must no longer rely only on the power of our values; we must also recognise the value of our power\u2019,\u201d Mr Merz said. \u201cI share that view. And when I look into this hall, I want to say: we share it. That is a good starting point.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur greatest strength remains the ability to build partnerships and alliances among equals based on mutual trust and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The German chancellor said a world in which only power counted was a dangerous place \u2013 first for small states, then for the middle powers and ultimately for the great ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not say this lightly. In the 20th century, my country, Germany<\/a>, went down this road to its bitter end. It pulled the world into a black abyss,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He spoke as EU leaders gathered in Brussels to discuss the volatile \u201cnew normal\u201d in transatlantic relations, after weeks of escalating threats from Mr Trump over Greenland that were suddenly dropped over a vague deal on Arctic security.<\/p>\n

\"FrenchFrench president Emmanuel Macron arrives for a meeting of European Council members in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday. Photograph: EPA <\/p>\n

The emergency EU summit was hastily convened earlier this week after the US<\/a> president announced he would impose 10 per cent tariffs on eight European nations that defended Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of Denmark. Although Mr Trump abandoned his tariff threat on Wednesday, EU officials said the summit remained necessary.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump\u2019s decision to step back from tariffs \u201cevidently changes a little the context of this European Council, but does not remove its interest\u201d, said a European diplomat, who evoked shifting tectonic plates in the geopolitical order. <\/p>\n

In the context of \u201cprofound geopolitical movements\u201d involving powers with great military and financial means, \u201cthe Europeans must be capable of being sufficiently united and strong in defending their interests and defining their own path,\u201d the diplomat said.<\/p>\n

A senior EU official said leaders were meeting in a context \u201cthat was more positive than it was 24 hours ago to discuss how they understand this new reality\u201d, citing \u201ca new normal of this very important and structural relationship between Europe and the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n

The European Parliament signalled on Thursday it was ready to reconsider its decision to freeze ratification of the EU-US trade deal, one of the bloc\u2019s strongest responses to Trump\u2019s tariff threats so far. <\/p>\n

MEPs had been expected to vote in February to approve 0 per cent tariffs on many US goods, a key part of the trade agreement signed at Mr Trump\u2019s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last summer. However, they pressed pause on the process on Wednesday in response to tariff threats.<\/p>\n

The head of the European Parliament\u2019s trade committee, German Social Democrat Bernd Lange, said his committee would revisit the issue next week, while stressing that the EU needed to remain vigilant. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no room for false security,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cThe next threat is sure to come. That\u2019s why it is even more important that we set clear boundaries, use all available legal instruments [and] apply them as appropriate to the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Mr Trump\u2019s tariff threats, the EU had been discussing levying duties on \u20ac93 billion of US goods, as well as deploying its most powerful economic sanctions weapon, the anti-coercion instrument, which would allow the bloc to impose a broad range of economic penalties on US firms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The German chancellor has warned that the rise of \u201cgreat powers\u201d is shaking the foundations of the old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[32,2000,299,1945,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-713625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-friedrich-merz","12":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115940221470719562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713625","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=713625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}