Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Droht ein neuer Handelskrieg zwischen der EU und den USA? Nachdem der Supreme Court zentrale US-Zölle für rechtswidrig erklärt hat, steht der sogenannte 15-Prozent-Deal zwischen Brüssel und Washington erneut auf der Kippe. Joana Lehner und Jürgen Klöckner besprechen, warum ein Plan B zum bisherigen Deal keine Option ist. Im Policy Talk spricht Evonik-Vorstandsmitglied und Interims-CFO Claus Rettig über die Folgen der US-Zölle für die Chemieindustrie, wie sie sich an einer Stelle positiv auswirken und warum er nicht an eine Neuverhandlung des Zoll-Deals zwischen der EU und den USA glaubt. Außerdem geht es mit Rettig auch um die China-Reise von Friedrich Merz. Außerdem berichtet ⁠Gordon Repinski⁠, der den Kanzler in China begleitet, wie der dort wirtschaftliche Kooperation stärker in den Vordergrund rückt. Trotz Kritik an unfairem Wettbewerb und wachsendem Handelsbilanzdefizit. „Power & Policy“ zeigt jede Woche, wo und wie die Entscheidungen in der Wirtschaftspolitik fallen. ⁠Jürgen Klöckner⁠ und ⁠Joana Lehner⁠ von POLITICO sprechen mit Top-Entscheidern und liefern Off-the-Record-Einblicke aus der Redaktion und Machtzentren. Präzise Analysen, lange bevor Gesetze beschlossen sind. Der Podcast für alle in Wirtschaft und Politik, die einen Wissensvorsprung brauchen — immer donnerstags. Für Policy-Profis: Abonnieren und die Pro-Newsletter ⁠Industrie & Handel⁠, ⁠Energie & Klima ⁠und ⁠Gesundheit⁠. Jetzt kostenlos testen. Fragen und Feedback gern an ⁠powerandpolicy@politico.eu⁠ **(Anzeige) Eine Nachricht von Fuchs & Cie.: Bei Fuchs & Cie. zählen Leistung und Erfolg. Im Interesse unserer Klienten und ihrer Themen. Deswegen jetzt bewerben. Gerne mit einem Hintergrund aus den Bereichen Defence, Finance, Data oder Energy. Bewerbung per Mail an karriere@fuchs-cie.de. Wir verstärken unsere Teams in Berlin, München und Frankfurt.** POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 ⁠information@axelspringer.de⁠ Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Einmal mehr hat der US-Präsident klar gemacht: Er ist offen für einen Deal, und doch scheut er nicht die militärische Konfrontation mit dem Mullah-Regime. Rixa Fürsen bespricht mit Hans von der Burchard, wie Deutschland und die EU auf Trumps Strategie reagieren, worauf sie hoffen und was sie befürchten. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview ist Bundestags-Vizepräsident Omid Nouripour von den Grünen zu Gast. Er ist in Teheran geboren und ordnet aus seiner Sicht ein, warum es mit einem Verzicht des Iran auf nukleare Waffen allein nicht getan ist und warum er fürchtet, die USA könnten es sich zu einfach machen. Außerdem berichtet Gordon Repinski aus China von der Reise des Kanzlers, die zumindest öffentlich ganz unter wirtschaftspolitischen Aspekten zu stehen scheint. Unseren neuen Wirtschafts-Podcast „Power & Policy“ gibt es hier zu hören. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. ⁠Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren.⁠ Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: ⁠@gordon.repinski⁠ | X: ⁠@GordonRepinski⁠. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 ⁠information@axelspringer.de⁠ Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna **(Anzeige) Eine Nachricht von Roche Deutschland: Deutschlands Zukunft entscheidet sich bei Innovation. Darum investieren wir heute Milliarden in Forschung, Produktion und Wertschöpfung in Deutschland – für Souveränität, Sicherheit und Unabhängigkeit. Denn klar ist: Wo Innovation ausgebremst wird, verliert eine Schlüsselindustrie an Tempo. Und Deutschland an gesunder Zukunft.**

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Was steckt in Donald Trumps erster richtiger Rede zur Lage der Nation zu Iran, zu den Zöllen und Europa? Eine Einschätzung von Gordon Repinski und von Julius Brinkmann von POLITICO in Washington. Parallel dazu blickt die Bundesregierung nach Peking. Kanzler Friedrich Merz zwischen Partnerschaft, Wettbewerb und Systemrivalität. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview erklärt CDU-Staatssekretärin und Mittelstandsbeauftragte Gitta Connemann, warum Deutschland auf Dialog setzt, aber mehr Schutz vor Investitionsverboten, Joint-Venture-Auflagen und erzwungenem Technologietransfer fordert. Vizekanzler Lars Klingbeil hat währenddessen die Leitung der Kabinettssitzung. Eine seltene Gelegenheit. Mit einem Konzept gegen organisierte Kriminalität, inklusive früherer Vermögensbeschlagnahmung bei Geldwäscheverdacht, setzt er ein Signal in der Innen- und Finanzpolitik. Rasmus Buchsteiner berichtet. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. ⁠Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren.⁠ Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: ⁠@gordon.repinski⁠ | X: ⁠@GordonRepinski⁠. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 ⁠information@axelspringer.de⁠ Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna **(Anzeige) Eine Nachricht von Roche Deutschland: Deutschlands Zukunft entscheidet sich bei Innovation. Darum investieren wir heute Milliarden in Forschung, Produktion und Wertschöpfung in Deutschland – für Souveränität, Sicherheit und Unabhängigkeit. Denn klar ist: Wo Innovation ausgebremst wird, verliert eine Schlüsselindustrie an Tempo. Und Deutschland an gesunder Zukunft.**

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Friedrich Merz reist nach China. Mit einer 30-köpfigen Wirtschaftsdelegation und klaren Worten im Gepäck. Kurz vor dem Abflug hat der Kanzler das Land als globalen Machtfaktor beschrieben, der Abhängigkeiten ausnutzt, Taiwan unter Druck setzt und die internationale Ordnung in seinem Sinne neu deutet. Gordon Repinski analysiert, wie der Kanzler die kritische Perspektive darauf und wirtschaftspolitische Interessen Deutschlands auf seiner Reise in Einklang bringen will. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview spricht BDI-Hauptgeschäftsführerin Tanja Gönner über Wettbewerb mit China, De-Risking, Exportkontrollen bei Seltenen Erden und die Balance zwischen strategischer Eigenständigkeit und wirtschaftlicher Kooperation. Bei den Grünen steht eine weitreichende Parteireform an. Maximilian Stascheit über ein neues Präsidium, Generalsekretär, weniger basisdemokratische Elemente. Die Partei will ihre Strukturen stärker an Union und SPD angleichen. Zwei Jahre POLITICO Deutschland. Beim Jubiläum im Axel-Springer-Hochhaus diskutieren u.a. Julia Klöckner, Karsten Wildberger, Ricarda Lang, Tim Klüssendorf und Florence Gaub über Debattenkultur, Reformfähigkeitg in der Politik. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. ⁠Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren.⁠ Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: ⁠@gordon.repinski⁠ | X: ⁠@GordonRepinski⁠. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 ⁠information@axelspringer.de⁠ Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna **(Anzeige) Eine Nachricht von Roche Deutschland: Deutschlands Zukunft entscheidet sich bei Innovation. Darum investieren wir heute Milliarden in Forschung, Produktion und Wertschöpfung in Deutschland – für Souveränität, Sicherheit und Unabhängigkeit. Denn klar ist: Wo Innovation ausgebremst wird, verliert eine Schlüsselindustrie an Tempo. Und Deutschland an gesunder Zukunft.**

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is the founder of the New Eurasian Strategies Centre and co-founder of the Russian Antiwar Committee. The Russia-China partnership has no limits — if you believe the two countries’ leaders, that is. Reality, however, isn’t quite so cozy. An uncomfortable marriage of convenience, theirs is a relationship limited by opposing goals: President Vladimir Putin’s Russia wants to tear down what remains of the post-Cold War international order and refashion it in the Kremlin’s own image. Whereas China’s contrasting gradualist approach to creating a Sino-centric global system requires preserving stability, predictability and the semblance of a rules-based order. Putin’s in a hurry because he has a limited window of opportunity to play to his strengths by exploiting the divisions among what he calls the “Collective West.” However, his weaknesses are clearly visible: U.S. intervention in Venezuela, the Kremlin’s reluctance to defend Iran and the Assad regime’s fall in Syria in late 2024  are all part of a pattern — that of an overstretched, weakened Russia that’s becoming less reliable and less trusted among its allies in the global south. And while U.S. President Donald Trump sometimes frames Russia and China as a collective threat to the U.S. — when it comes to the rationale behind his Greenland policy, for example — Washington’s actually much more interested in shaping global dynamics with Beijing than with Moscow. The 2025 meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Seoul made clear that the Trump administration now sees value in separating the “Russia question” from the “China question,” and in building a pragmatic relationship of economic cooperation and Machtpolitik with Beijing. And though many experts dismiss this possibility out of hand, the Kremlin is worried by it — for good reason. For Russia, the implications of a U.S.-China rapprochement — even if based on convenience rather than conviction — are profound. Such a shift would relegate Putin’s Russia to the status of a secondary player on the international stage and sharply weaken its leverage — not least in Ukraine. The Russian leader’s dependence on Chinese supplies for machinery, equipment and the transit of goods essential to sustain his war has reached unprecedented levels. Without China, Putin’s war machine would have likely ground to a halt in 12 months or even less. Pool photo by Evgenia Novozhenina/AFP via Getty Images That’s why Moscow’s reaction to the Trump-Xi meeting was predictably bellicose, with Kremlin-friendly television channels trumpeting the fact that Russia’s new nuclear-capable missiles could plunge the world into ecological disaster or wipe out millions of people in a heartbeat — a sure sign Putin was rattled. True, the China-Russia relationship has strengthened significantly since 2022, and China has done little to rein in Putin’s aggression so far. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also reportedly told EU High Representative Kaja Kallas that his country didn’t want to see Russia defeated in Ukraine, as the U.S. would then concentrate its attention on Beijing. But the maintenance of the Moscow-Beijing partnership rests on the assumption that both countries have more to gain in challenging and resisting the U.S. together. And that’s now in question. It was Washington’s miscalculation to initially believe it could peel Moscow away from Beijing by offering concessions and engage China from a position of strength. But that strategy has changed, with Trump characterizing his most recent meeting with Xi as a “12 out of 10,” and enthusiastically accepting an invitation to visit China in April. The U.S. leader’s pragmatic approach is certainly closer to Xi’s style, which opens the door for Beijing to achieve its goals regarding trade and hegemony in its own immediate neighborhood. Moreover, neither is inclined to provoke military conflict with the other. Trump, for his part, has vowed to curtail America’s “endless wars” — even if he bombed Iran and threatened several neighboring countries. And while Xi has his eye on Taiwan, he has every reason to avoid war with the U.S. because of the risks to the Chinese economy. This is in stark contrast to Putin, who is locked into the logic of war in order to preserve power. His absolutist approach to diplomacy couldn’t be more different to Trump. Every time the U.S. pushed for a ceasefire in Ukraine to enable negotiations, the Kremlin reiterated its maximalist goals and stepped up its air attacks instead. At least Trump appears to have realized he can’t force Putin to the negotiating table with existing sanctions or limited military pressure. However many “constructive” phone calls they have, there’s no deal to be struck. At the same time, talk of Trump walking away from Ukraine has mostly died down in Washington. The U.S. leader remains committed to achieving a peace settlement, and appears to understand that Beijing’s leverage over Moscow now offers the best prospect of achieving this. The question is whether the “no limits” partnership with Putin still offers greater benefits for Beijing, or if China’s current interests lie in a pragmatic détente with Washington and Europe. With Europe eyeing the U.S. administration warily, China now has an opportunity to cement a long-term accommodation with the old continent. And that gives Europe potential leverage to persuade China to distance itself from an unpredictable “ally” and curtail the Kremlin’s neo-imperial aggression. After all, Beijing has no interest in Putin’s continued destabilization of Europe.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Im März stehen die ersten zwei von insgesamt fünf Landtagswahlen an. Baden-Württemberg und Rheinland-Pfalz sind der Auftakt. In der CDU derweil sind Vorschläge zur Abschaffung der”Lifestyle-Teilzeit” und der Streichung von Kassenleistung für den Zahnarztbesuch derweil Anlass für Unruhe. Die einen äußern sich, die anderen sind verärgert und kassieren die Ideen so schnell ein, wie sie gemacht werden.  Eine Partei sucht öffentlich ihre Linie und das macht die Wahlkämpfer unglücklich. Rasmus Buchsteiner berichtet von der Flatterstimmung und dem Versuch, unter anderem vor und auf dem CDU-Parteitag in Stuttgart den Schaden zu begrenzen. Außerdem bespricht er mit Gordon, wie die ausbleibenden Fortschritte bei den versprochenen Reformen die Situation mit ausgelöst haben. Gleichzeitig geht es für die SPD in den Umfragen bergauf. Zumindest in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Dort ist die AfD der Hauptgegner für die amtierende Ministerpräsidentin Manuela Schwesig. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview spricht sie darüber, wie sie den Moment für sich nutzen und für ihre Partei nutzen will. Außerdem: Der Kanzler bricht heute zu seiner ersten offiziellen Reise in die Golfregion auf. Tom Schmidtgen vom Pro-Newsletter ‘Industrie und Handel am Morgen’ über den neuen wichtigen Partner Saudi-Arabien, der sich nicht nur seiner strategisch guten Lage, sondern auch seiner wirtschaftlichen Stärke bewusst ist.  Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren. Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 information@axelspringer.de Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna

Yanmei Xie is senior associate fellow at the Mercator Institute for China Studies. After Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at Davos last week, a whole continent contracted leadership envy. Calling the rules-based order — which Washington proselytized for decades before stomping on — a mirage, Carney gave his country’s neighboring hegemonic bully a rhetorical middle finger, and Europeans promptly swooned. But before the bloc’s politicians rush to emulate him, it may be worth cooling the Carney fever. Appearing both steely and smooth in his Davos speech, Carney warned middle powers that “when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness.” Perhaps this was in reference to the crass daily coercion Canada has been enduring from the U.S. administration. But perhaps he was talking about the subtler asymmetry he experienced just days before in Beijing. In contrast to his defiance in Switzerland, Carney was ingratiating during his China visit. He signed Canada up for a “new strategic partnership” in preparation for an emerging “new world order,” and lauded Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a fellow defender of multilateralism. The visit also produced a cars-for-canola deal, which will see Canada slash tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from 100 percent to 6.1 percent, and lift the import cap to 49,000 cars per year. In return, China will cut duties on Canadian canola seeds from 84 percent to 15 percent. In time, Ottawa also expects Beijing will reduce tariffs on Canadian lobsters, crabs and peas later this year and purchase more Canadian oil and perhaps gas, too. The agreement to launch a Ministerial Energy Dialogue will surely pave the way for eventual deals. These productive exchanges eventually moved Carney to declare Beijing a “more predictable” trade partner than Washington. And who can blame him? He was simply stating the obvious — after all, China isn’t threatening Canada with annexation. But one is tempted to wonder if he would have needed to flatter quite so much in China if his country still possessed some of the world’s leading technologies. The truth is, Canada’s oil and gas industry probably shouldn’t really be holding its breath. Chinese officials typically offer serious consideration rather than outright rejection out of politeness — just ask Russia, which has spent decades in dialogue with Beijing over a pipeline meant to replace Europe as a natural gas market. The cars-for-canola deal also carries a certain irony: Canada is importing the very technology that makes fossil fuels obsolete. China is electrifying at dizzying speed, with the International Energy Agency projecting its oil consumption will peak as early as next year thanks to “extraordinary” electric vehicle sales. That means Beijing probably isn’t desperate for new foreign suppliers of hydrocarbons, and the ministerial dialogue will likely drag on inconclusively — albeit courteously — well into the future. This state of Sino-Canadian trade can be seen as classic comparative advantage at work: China is good at making things, and Canada has abundant primary commodities. But in the not-so-distant past, it was Canadian companies that were selling nuclear reactors, telecom equipment, aircraft and bullet trains to China. Yet today, many of these once globe-spanning Canadian high-tech manufacturers have either exited the scene or lead a much-reduced existence. Somewhere in this trading history lies a cautionary tale for Europe. Deindustrialization can have its own self-reinforcing momentum. As a country’s economic composition changes, so does its political economy. When producers of goods disappear, so does their political influence. And the center of lobbying gravity shifts toward downstream users and consumers who prefer readily available imports. Europe’s indigenous solar manufacturers have been driven to near extinction by much cheaper Chinese products | STR/AFP via Getty Images Europe already has its own version of this story: Its indigenous solar manufacturers have been driven to near extinction by much cheaper Chinese products over the span of two decades. Currently, its solar industry is dominated by installers and operators who favor cheap imports and oppose trade defense. Simply put, Carney’s cars-for-canola deal is a salve for Canadian consumers and commodity producers, but it’s also industrial policy in reverse. In overly simplified terms, industrial policy is about encouraging exports of finished products over raw materials and discouraging the opposite in order to build domestic value-added capacity and productivity. But while Canada can, perhaps, make do without industry — as Carney put it in Davos, his ambition is to run “an energy superpower” — Europe doesn’t have that option. Agri-food and extractive sectors aren’t enough to stand up the continent’s economy — even with the likes of tourism and luxury goods thrown in. China currently exports more than twice as much to the EU than it imports. In container terms, the imbalance widens to 4-to-1. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs estimates Chinese exports will shave 0.2 percentage point or more of GDP growth in Germany, Spain and Italy each year through 2029. And according to the European Central Bank, cars, chemicals, electric equipment and machinery — sectors that form Europe’s industrial backbone — face the most severe job losses from China trade shock. Europe shares Canada’s plight in dealing with the U.S., which currently isn’t just an unreliable trade partner but also an ally turned imperialist. This is why Carney’s speech resonates. But U.S. protectionism has only made China’s mercantilism a more acute challenge for Europe, as the U.S. resists the bloc’s exports and Chinese goods keep pouring into Europe in greater quantities at lower prices. European leaders would be mistaken to look for trade relief in China as Carney does, and bargain away the continent’s industrial capacity in the process. Whether it’s to resist an expansionist Russia or an imperial U.S., Europe still needs to hold on to its manufacturing base.

ABOARD THE PRIME MINISTER’S PLANE TO BEIJING — Keir Starmer rejected his Canadian counterpart’s call for mid-sized countries to band together in the face of unpredictable global powers — and insisted his “common sense” British approach will do just fine. The British prime minister arrives in China Wednesday for a trip aimed at rebooting the U.K.’s relationship with the Asian superpower. He’s the latest Western leader to make the visit — which will include a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping — after trips by Carney and France’s Emmanuel Macron. Carney used a searing speech at the World Economic Forum last week to warn of the “rupture” caused by “great powers” acting in their own self-interest. While he did not namecheck Donald Trump’s administration, the speech riled the U.S. president, who insisted: “Canada lives because of the United States.” The Canadian PM had called for middle powers to work together to “build something bigger, better, stronger, more just.” Starmer was pressed on those remarks on board his flight to China Tuesday. Asked whether he agreed that the old global order is dead — and whether smaller powers need to team up to push back at the U.S. and China, Starmer defended his own policy of trying to build bridges with Trump, Xi and the European Union all at once. “I’m a pragmatist, a British pragmatist applying common sense, and therefore I’m pleased that we have a good relationship with the U.S. on defense, security, intelligence and on trade and prosperity,” he says. “It’s very important that we maintain that good relationship.” He added: “Equally, we are moving forward with a better relationship with the EU. We had a very good summit last year with 10 strands of agreement. “We’ll have another summit this year with the EU, which I hope will be iterative, as well as following through on what we’ve already agreed. “And I’ve consistently said I’m not choosing between the U.S. and Europe. I’m really glad that the UK has got good relations with both.” Starmer’s government — which faces pressure from opposition parties back home as it re-engages with China — has stressed that it wants to cooperate, compete with and challenge Beijing when necessary, as it bids to build economic ties to aid the sputtering U.K. economy. “Obviously, China is the second biggest economy in the world, one of our biggest trading partners,” the British PM — who is flying with an entourage of British CEOs and business reps — said Tuesday. “And under the last government, we veered from the golden age to the ice age. And what I want to do is follow through on the approach I’ve set out a number of times now … which is a comprehensive and consistent approach to China. “I do think there are opportunities, but obviously we will never compromise national security in taking those opportunities.”

BRUSSELS — The European Commission’s vice president Henna Virkkunen sounded the alarm about Europe’s dependence on foreign technology on Tuesday, saying “it’s very clear that Europe is having our independence moment.” “During the last year, everybody has really realized how important it is that we are not dependent on one country or one company when it comes to some very critical technologies,” she said at an event organized by POLITICO. “In these times … dependencies, they can be weaponized against us,” Virkkunen said. The intervention at the event — titled Europe’s race for digital leadership — comes at a particularly sensitive time in transatlantic relations, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent threats to take over Greenland forced European politicians to consider retaliation. Virkkunen declined to single out the United States as one of the partners that the EU must de-risk from. She pointed to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as incidents that point to Europe’s “vulnerabilities.” She said the U.S. is a key partner, but also noted that “it’s very important for our competitiveness and for our security, that we have also our own capacity, that we are not dependent.” The Commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty swung behind the idea of using public contracts as a way to support the development of European technology companies and products. “We should use public procurement, of course, much more actively also to boost our own growing technologies in the European Union,” she said when asked about her stance on plans to “Buy European.” Those plans, being pushed by the French EU commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, in charge of European industy, to ensure that billions in procurement contracts flow to EU businesses, are due to be outlined in an upcoming Industrial Accelerator Act that has been delayed multiple times. “Public services, governments, municipalities, regions, also the European Commission, we are very big customers for ICT services,” Virkkunen said. “And we can also boost very much European innovations [and startups] when we are buying services.” Virkkunen is overseeing a package of legislation aimed at promoting tech sovereignty that is expected to come out this spring, including action on cloud and artificial intelligence, and microchips — industries in which Europe is behind global competitors. When asked where she saw the biggest need for Europe to break away from foreign reliance, the commissioner said that while it was difficult to pick only one area, “chips are very much a pre-condition for any other technologies.” “We are not able to design and manufacture very advanced chips. It’s very problematic for our technology customer. So I see that semiconductor chips, they are very much key for any other technologies,” she said.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Friedrich Merz steht zu Beginn des Jahres 2026 unter Zugzwang. Bei der CSU-Klausur in Seeon muss er beweisen, ob er den Spagat zwischen „Klingbeil-Versteher“ und Reformkanzler schafft. Rasmus Buchsteiner berichtet aus dem Kloster, warum die Union jetzt Ergebnisse bei der Unternehmenssteuer will und wie Merz seine Doppelbotschaft aus Sicherheit und Wirtschaft vermitteln muss. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview bezieht EU-Kommissar Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) Stellung zur CSU-Forderung nach einer Abschiebeoffensive Richtung Syrien. Er erklärt, warum Regeln eingehalten werden müssen, wie Brüssel künftig mit „Return Hubs“ plant und warum Grenzkontrollen noch eine Weile bleiben dürften. Ringen um die außenpolitischen Linien in der AfD: Weil Alice Weidel die USA-Strategie besetzt, sucht Tino Chrupalla sein Profil in China. Pauline von Pezold analysiert, wie die Reise ohne Fachexperten, aber mit PR stattfindet und was das über den Riss in der Parteispitze verrät. Außerdem: Ein Blackout in Berlin-Zehlendorf und ein Regierender Bürgermeister auf dem Tennisplatz. Kai Wegners Freizeitgestaltung während der Krise sorgt für Kopfschütteln. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren. Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 information@axelspringer.de Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna