Chancellor Scholz stressed that Europe has a global responsibility beyond its borders “because the well-being of Europe cannot be separated from the well-being of the rest of the world.” The world of the 21st century, he said, “will be multipolar, it already is”. Chancellor Scholz identified three lessons for the EU: “First, Europe’s future is in our hands. Secondly, the more united Europe is, the easier it will be to secure a good future for ourselves. And thirdly, not less but more openness and more cooperation are the order of the day.”

To secure Europe’s place in the world of tomorrow, the EU must change, the Chancellor said. “We need a geopolitical EU, an enlarged and reformed EU, and an EU open to the future”.

On Russia’s war against Ukraine, he said the EU must now set the course for the reconstruction of Ukraine. A prosperous, democratic, European Ukraine is the clearest rejection of Putin’s imperial, revisionist and illegal policy.

In a multipolar…