Anton Hofreiter, chair of the German Bundestag’s European Affairs Committee, voiced strong criticism of the federal chancellor. Speaking to RTL and ntv, he replied to Friedrich Merz’s assertion that the EU summit, which begins today, would focus on Europe’s competitiveness with, “I don’t know whether the chancellor is poorly prepared. I simply think what he says is nonsense”. Hofreiter added that the summit’s agenda will revolve around other matters and that the points on “bureaucratic simplification” have already been agreed upon and only need to be signed.
He went on to say that EU heads of state and government are not “so crazy” to prioritize bureaucratic reductions while wars rage-Russia’s conflict with Ukraine and the United States‑Israel confrontation with Iran. “I’m not against reducing bureaucracy” he said, “but they now have far more important things to deal with”.