‘We’re a global power’
Calls for the EU to become a major global force independent of the US are gaining traction. An unprecedented military build-up is planned – where possible without buying American weapons. The aim: a partnership of equals.
BERLIN (own report) - In view of the Trump administration’s power play, calls are getting louder in Germany for the European Union to become an independent force on the global stage. As a statement from the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) put it, “Europe must mobilise its ample resources to replace America as a global leader.” Berlin and Brussels are setting out unprecedented spending plans, in the high three-digit billion range, for arming Germany and the EU. Proponents of rapid militarisation want to procure European weaponry rather than American. This view is now being adopted even by traditionally transatlantic-aligned media. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung puts it, “A country that, overnight, stops military aid for a partner at war can no longer be trusted.” A concerted arms build-up will be accompanied by moves to give all of Berlin’s activities abroad a sharper focus on national interests. To this end, there are calls for Germany’s international development ministry to be incorporated into the Federal Foreign Office – creating a kind of “Ministry for German Interests”. These steps are in fact aimed at realising a long-standing ambition of West German foreign policy: leveraging the EU to achieve a partnership of equals with the US.
‘Replacing America’
Just a few hours after the polls closed on 23 February, the presumed future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that it was now his “absolute priority ... to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible” so that it would achieve “independence” from the United States in every respect.[1] Since then, calls for far-reaching independence from the American superpower have quickly become louder. On 28 February, immediately after the sensational bust-up in front of the media during Ukrainian President Zelensky’s visit to the White House, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas declared that “the free world now needs a new leader; it is up to us Europeans to take up this challenge.”[2] At the beginning of last week, a concise statement from the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) argued that the Trump administration was rapidly destroying “America’s credibility and international reputation”. The damage “will take decades to repair – and may be irreparable”.[3] The advice has become: “Europe must mobilise its ample resources to replace America as a global leader.” Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, was already calling in January for Europe to position itself independently of the US, saying, “We are a global power.”[4] His only caveat: “But we must believe in it.”
Record arms drive
Demands to become independent of the United States are now echoed in an unprecedented wave of militarisation in the EU and the UK. “Europe,” a DGAP experts writes, “holds all the cards that it needs.” Militarily, its armed forces are “among the world’s strongest, most experienced, and most innovative.”[5] Last week, the EU decided on a rearmament programme costing up to 800 billion euros. The intention is to strengthen the armed forces of all 27 member states with gigantic quantities of war equipment and machinery, procured at great speed (as german-foreign-policy.com has reported [6]). In addition, a discussion has been set in motion, not least at the instigation of Friedrich Merz, on the option of an independent nuclear component of this European arms drive. This Thursday and on Tuesday next week, the Bundestag is being asked to amend the Basic Law to exempt military spending from Germany’s strict “debt brake”, which has kept social programmes on a tight leash. This move will allow almost limitless arms purchases in future. As there will be no majority for this plan in the newly elected Bundestag, the vote is to be pushed through in the final sessions of the old parliament, even though it has now been democratically voted out. In other words, militarisation takes precedence over democracy.
Buy European
There are now voices increasingly calling for EU members to “avoid arms purchases in the US ... wherever possible”, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a paper traditionally transatlantic-aligned, put it at the weekend. Referring to the Trump administration’s position on Ukraine, it argues, “A country that, overnight, stops military aid for a partner at war can no longer be trusted.”[7] This opinion piece followed a paper by several influential economists and business representatives calling for a shift away from US arms imports. The paper sets out more detailed proposals for future armament procurement to centre on European production sites. Otherwise, it is argued, Europe would end up in “ongoing dependency” despite its militarisation.[8] On Friday, the CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus SE, reinforced this message. If, explained Michael Schöllhorn, the three-digit billions to be raised for armaments were spent on “off-the-shelf products in the USA, we will be cementing our dependence on others.” He cited Denmark’s procurement of the US F-35 fighter jets as a case in point. If, say, Copenhagen wanted to use them to defend Greenland against possible annexation by the US, the Danish government would, Schöllhorn notes, soon realise that the warplanes would not even get there, given the US’s ability to technically interfere with any deployment.[9]
‘Ministry for German Interests’
The plans for an unprecedented militarisation of Europe along with far-reaching independence from the United States go hand in hand with calls to focus all of the German government’s activities abroad even more strongly on pursuing and enforcing German interests. The former head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, and two German diplomats published an article at the weekend calling for the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to be integrated into the Federal Foreign Office.[10] Time and again, they assert, German diplomats in countries of the Global South have been “unable to get their concerns acted upon” because the Federal Foreign Office has no control over development assistance allocations and cannot use them as leverage. “This is how we are losing influence worldwide,” they complain. When it comes to “asserting our interests”, they want to see a single ministry that has “all the instruments at its disposal to make Germany’s voice heard”. They advance the ideas of having a “ministry for German interests”. This also means that organisations such as the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ, for international development cooperation) and the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW, for financial cooperation) would then be “fused under the leadership of the respective embassy” – now acting as a “German House”.
‘More courage to assume global power’
By embarking on a policy of compulsory militarisation in Europe and moving towards an exclusive focus on national interests for all German activities abroad, Berlin is reviving a longstanding goal of the German elites: namely, to deal with the United States “on an equal footing”. Back in 1966, the then CSU leader and former Defence Minister (1956 to 1962) Franz Josef Strauß spoke out in favour of “a united Europe” rising to “the position of an independent power between the United States and the [then] Soviet Union”.[11] In 2003, Werner Weidenfeld, then an advisor to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, wrote in an article in the Springer-owned newspaper Die Welt that the EU already had potential strengths that can “define the status of a global power”. Indeed, he saw the EU as superior to the US in some key areas. “The integrated Europe,” he wrote, “is a world power in the making.”[12] Ideas for giving Germany a much stronger role on the world stage have been discussed many times. In 2020, for example, a piece entitled “More courage to assume global power” in the weekly Die Zeit reflected this trend by urging EU leadership in world affairs.[13] The title of an article in the Welt am Sonntag in 2020, co-authored by former International Development Minister Gerd Müller ran “Europe has the makings of a world power.”[14]
[1] Berlin Direkt, 23.02.2025. S. dazu „Unabhängigkeit von den USA“.
[2] Nadeem Badshah: “Free world needs a new leader”, says EU foreign chief after Trump Zelenskyy row. theguardian.com 28.02.2025.
[3] Sławomir Sierakowski: America Is Gone – Europe Must Replace It. dgap.org 03.03.2025.
[4] Tusk will EU für Trump rüsten und aufrüsten. orf.at 22.01.2025.
[5] Sławomir Sierakowski: America Is Gone – Europe Must Replace It. dgap.org 03.03.2025.
[6] See: Der Rekordrüstungsgipfel.
[7] Nikolas Busse: Amerika ist nicht mehr zu trauen. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 08.03.2025.
[8] Ökonom Schularick konkretisiert Rüstungsvorschläge. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05.03.2025. See: Rüsten ohne Grenzen.
[9] „Zementiert unsere Abhängigkeit von anderen“. tagesspiegel.de 07.03.2025.
[10] Christoph Heusgen, Egon Kochanke, Rainer Müller: Ein Ministerium für deutsche Interessen. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 08.03.2025.
[11] Franz Josef Strauß: Entwurf für Europa. Stuttgart 1966. p.26f. See also: Europas Fahnenträger.
[12] Werner Weidenfeld: Thinktank: Die verhinderte Weltmacht. welt.de 08.03.2003.
[13] Ulrich Ladurner: Mehr Mut zur Weltmacht. zeit.de 01.10.2020.
[14] Gerd Müller, Werner Weidenfeld: Die EU hat das Zeug zur Weltmacht. welt.de 21.10.2020. See: "More Courage to Assume Global Power".
