Closed conference in Meseberg: How Europe wants to make itself independent

The traffic light in Meseberg wants to advise for two days – and there should also be a dispute. But at the start with EU Commission chief von der Leyen, things went harmoniously.

The two-day closed conference of the Federal Cabinet has begun in Brandenburg’s Meseberg. At the start, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was a guest to discuss with the ministerial group primarily energy and economic policy issues.

economic policy in focus

The focus was on the Europe-wide energy transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewables. In a joint press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, von der Leyen emphasized that within eight months it had become largely independent of Russian energy supplies. These have fallen by 80 percent.

Scholz explained that they had discussed how European competitiveness could be secured in the long term. “Who would have thought that it would be possible to get through this situation together without having experienced an energy crisis?” said Scholz.

The central question is “how do we manage to stop man-made climate change”. According to Scholz, for this to succeed, a competitive European economy is needed. That is why the two politicians emphasized that the consequences of the US Inflation Reduction Act were also being intensively dealt with. The multi-billion investment program provides incentives for companies to invest in the US and create jobs and economic growth there.

Von der Leyen sees Putin as a failure

Scholz named digitization, artificial intelligence and “all the decisions that are important for the future” as other important topics. According to Scholz, the focus here must also be on workers in Europe. He referred to the need to fight the shortage of skilled workers together as the European Union.

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine was also an issue. “The fact that we stand together here, that we have remained united: Russia, the Russian President certainly never expected that,” said Scholz. This must remain so in the future, so that the path to the EU can be paved for Ukraine in the long term. If you look back a year after the start of the war, it is clear “that President Putin has failed in the elementary goals he had at the beginning of this war,” von der Leyen added.

confidence as a basis

In the following deliberations of the traffic light coalition, many issues that are controversial within the government alliance are likely to be discussed. This includes, among other things, the expansion of wind power. Before the start of the closed conference, Scholz had declared that Germany would only be able to modernize its society and economy if the population had confidence. “That is the basis for this to succeed.”