EU summit: Farewell from Brussels: Scholz says “Bye”

“Bye”-With this tight word, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said goodbye to the press conference after his last regular EU summit. At the end of the meeting, the SPD politician took a factual record of his time at Brussels Culpit tables. In the years he “learned a lot about political conditions in other countries,” said Scholz. That helps to “always stay relaxed with everything that can meet yourself”.

When asked about his greatest achievement, the Chancellor referred to the support of Ukraine and that large crises such as the energy crisis had been mastered. This was successful, although many would not have believed in the initially, said Scholz. The reform of the common European asylum system was also correct.

Merkel got great farewell

France’s President Emmanuel Macron reported that the meeting had the opportunity to thank Scholz. Further details about an official farewell to the German Chancellor were initially not known.

In EU peaks, outgoing heads of state and government are sometimes adopted with special gestures. After 16 years, Angela Merkel was honored as a chancellor and a record-breaking number of 106 EU peaks with standing ovations and a video presentation. The then EU Council President Charles Michel praised Merkel as a “monument” of Europe and said: “The European Council without Angela is like Rome without the Vatican or Paris without the Eiffel Tower.”

As a really big European, Scholz will not go into the history of the EU. He showed too little willingness to take a real leadership role. In addition, the Franco-German drive, which was so important for Europe, stalled because Scholz and Macron did not get along so well.

Macron praises Scholz as a valuable partner

Nevertheless, the Frenchman Scholz praised the summit in front of journalists as a “very valuable partner”. “I would like to express a very personal word to Chancellor Scholz, who was a comrade, a companion and a political partner over the years,” he said.

The next regular conference of the European heads of state and government is only due to the end of June. It is expected that Friedrich Merz (CDU) was elected by the Bundestag as the next German Chancellor.

EU wants to upgrade massively by 2030

Since the world situation should not relax significantly, the EU’s security and defense course will probably continue to be in focus until then. Already at this meeting in Brussels, the top politicians agreed to massively strengthen Europe’s willingness to defend it until 2030.

The upgrading plans include, for example, EU loans in the amount of 150 billion euros and a special rule that allows defense spending to exclude the strict EU debt rules. A total of 800 billion euros are to be mobilized in the next four years alone.

The background is that, according to the European Commission, the EU must prepare for the possibility of a large -scale war with Russia. The situation is particularly dangerous because US President Donald Trump has announced that the atomic superpower USA will no longer be available unconditionally than a guarantee of peace in Europe in the future. The plans should also make it possible to support the Ukraine attacked by Russia even more militarily in the future.

No common line in Ukraine policy

There were no new greater help for Ukraine at first. The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj appealed to the EU by means of a video that he did not allow his country to support his country. Specifically, he demanded at least five billion euros for artillery bullets. The claim goes back to an initiative from the EU foreign representative Kaja Kallas, who again called for the amount to provide the sum for ammunition deliveries to the Ukrainian armed forces at the beginning of the meeting.

The summit was overshadowed by the announcement of Hungary not to accept any new EU decisions in favor of Ukraine. As at the special summit on March 6, no common EU text could therefore be accepted. The other 26 member states then confirmed in a statement without him that they continue to support the “independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within their internationally recognized borders”.

EU website with information about the summit