Germany’s international and European policy environment is changing drastically. This necessitates a reorientation of Germany’s European policy. The European Union (EU) is becoming increasingly important for Germany as a powerful community of action and should be further developed into an economic and security life insurance policy for Germany and the EU’s other member states. In the coalition agreement between the CDU / CSU and the SPD, the new governing parties are claiming a pragmatic leadership role for Germany in European policy. To realise this ambition and advance key policies that are crucial for European self-determination, the new government should provide leadership that is marked by enhanced European policy coordination, grounded in an expanded partnership strategy, and aimed at strengthening the Union’s overall capacity to act.
The collapse of transatlantic certainties, combined with the continuing threat from Russia, requires Germany and its transatlantic-oriented socialised elites to fundamentally rethink their principles. It is the EU and cooperation with key partners that must guarantee security, prosperity, and freedom in the future and create solidarity between states and societies.
In order to provide leadership and foster its own interests in a strengthened EU, Germany should design a European policy that does not cling to an outdated status quo or merely focus on maintaining EU unity. Germany should leverage its influence to develop the EU into a life insurance policy for all member states, thereby becoming a strong partner for neighbouring countries.
This requires significant political and financial investment to safeguard security, economic competitiveness, and the European model of society and democracy. The EU is the cornerstone of Europe’s ambition for strategic autonomy – understood as “the ability to set one’s own priorities and make one’s own decisions in matters of foreign policy and security, together with the institutional, political and material wherewithal to carry these through – in cooperation with third parties, or if need be alone” (as defined in SWP Research Paper 4/2019). The goal is to increase investment in common public goods and establish the framework for a competitive, modern European economy.
The EU has long been the central platform for Germany to develop regional and global regulations, and thus assert its interests worldwide. The policy areas that are mainly shaped through the EU range from (foreign) trade, climate and the environment, securing energy and raw materials, health, cyber security, artificial intelligence and digitalisation, to traditional diplomacy and conflict management. However, geopolitical and power-political strategies based on threats, military force, and territorial expansion are challenging this cooperative form of multilateralism and the EU community method more than ever.
In its coalition agreement, the new German government outlines a European policy with a great deal of pragmatism, a considerable claim to leadership, and no great vision. Its guiding principles are self-assertion and strategic autonomy. The fact that the parties have avoided drawing any red lines shows that they want to retain the necessary room for manoeuvre.
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