On Friday, during the start of his official visit to Brussels, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) met with the President of the European Council, António Costa and expressed his support for stronger integration of capital markets.
Merz expressed his excitement to be in Brussels on May 9th, stating in a subsequent press conference, “On my third day in office, but on Europe Day. The challenges we face are great, but perhaps it is precisely for that reason that we need to once again point to the origins of the European Union. After all, it was exactly 75 years ago that former French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann proposed the creation of a European Community for coal and steel.”
Now, Merz emphasized the need to complete the European internal market. “It has been the backbone of European policy for many years. It is a great success story, but it must be continued” said the Chancellor, looking towards efforts to integrate capital markets. “We will jointly take up the initiative because we simply see that European companies in Germany do not have enough capital available in Europe, because we still have very fragmented capital markets.”
Merz also highlighted the efforts to build a stronger defense industry in Europe. He asked Costa not to overlook the need for new financial resources and emphasized the importance of becoming more efficient and “simply making much more equipment available for the available financial resources.” As Chancellor, Merz stressed the urgency of these initiatives to strengthen Europe’s economic and defense capabilities.