Germany’s Merz admits Europe was free-riding on the US

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has accepted US accusations that Europe was doing too little to fund its own defence and security, but now believes they are on the same page.

“We know we have to do more on our own and we have been free-riders in the past,” he told the BBC’s Today Programme, “they’re asking us to do more and we are doing more.”

Merz was in the UK to boost defence ties with Germany, as part of a historic friendship treaty that also aims to tackle irregular migration and promote youth exchanges.

Russia’s war with Ukraine has framed the early weeks of his chancellorship, as has US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 30% import tariffs on European Union exports from 1 August.

Merz told Nick Robinson, in his first UK broadcast interview as chancellor, that he had now met Trump three times and they were on good speaking terms: “I think President Trump is on the same page; we are trying to bring this war to an end.”

“We are on the phone once a week; we are co-ordinating our efforts. One issue is the war in Ukraine, and the second is our trade debates and tariffs.”

Merz was a vocal supporter of Ukraine on the campaign trail, and visited Kyiv months before he took Germany’s centre-right Christian Democrats to victory in elections in February.

Four days after he was sworn in early in May, he was on a train to Kyiv in a show of solidarity with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron of France.

“We are seeing a big threat, and the threat is Russia. And this threat is not only on Ukraine. It’s on our peace, on our freedom, on the political order of Europe,” he warned.

In the run-up to the German elections, US Vice-President JD Vance shocked an audience at the Munich Security Conference with a list of accusations against European allies, including the UK.

Reflecting on the remarks, Merz said the government “had to draw our consequences out of that”. The message from Vance’s “very open manner” had, in other words, been heard loud and clear.

Canan Atilgan of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in London which is closely affiliated to Merz’s party believes that had a profound effect on the incoming chancellor: “I think in Munich he thought we lost the Americans – we have to look after ourselves – and then Zelensky in the Oval Office happened.”

Even before he had been sworn in, the chancellor steered through a change in the German constitution to enable a huge rise in defence spending, saying the rule now for German defence was to do whatever it takes.

“We are not strong enough, our army is not strong enough, so that’s the reason why we are spending a lot of money,” he said in his BBC interview.

Together, the UK, Germany and France are working on a triangular alliance of major European powers, dubbed the E3, which Merz says will focus not just on security and foreign policy but on economic growth as well.

The chancellor said he was now “very close with Keir Starmer” and with the French president too. Macron is due to visit him in Berlin next week.

The French leader signed a wide-ranging treaty with Germany in Aachen in 2019, and last week he agreed a deeper defence pact during a state visit to the UK, so the UK-German friendship treaty completes a triangle of bilateral ties.

Sitting in the plush surroundings of the German embassy, Friedrich Merz was about to head to the Victoria and Albert Museum to sign the pact with the Prime Minister.

Merz said the bilateral treaty renewed the two allies’ commitment to defend each other – which is not just part of the Nato treaty but was also previously part of their alliance when the UK was in the EU.

British and German firms already collaborate in making products such as Typhoon Eurofighter jets and Boxer armoured vehicles, and the two governments have agreed to launch joint export campaigns that Downing Street believes could attract billions of pounds.

They are also developing a missile with a range of 2,000km (1,250 miles) and the chancellor later told a press conference that Ukraine would soon receive substantial additional support in “long-range fire”.

Merz, 69, is regarded as a strong believer in the transatlantic alliance and knows the US well from his years outside politics working for an American investment firm.

However, on the night of his election victory he declared that the Trump administration was “largely indifferent to the fate of Europe”, a remark seen at the time as undiplomatic for a chancellor-in-waiting.

Asked if he had since changed his mind, he said he had not, as Trump was “not as clear and as committed as former US presidents were, former US administrations were”.

The Americans were moving away from Europe and turning to Asia, he observed, and that was why it was important to look at greater independence from American defence.

The UK has largely escaped the turbulence surrounding US tariffs on its exports, but the European Union is facing a deadline less than two weeks away, and the threat of 30% tariffs on all its goods.

EU trade negotiator Maroš Šefčovič travelled to Washington this week in search of a deal that would spare all 27 member states from a surge in US import taxes.

Merz sees the high tariffs as unacceptable and killing Germany’s export industry.

“My observation is that the president himself is seeing the challenges and that he is willing to come to an agreement. He gets it.”

Another important element of the UK-German treaty is Berlin’s agreement to change the law to criminalise smugglers storing small boats in Germany for use in illegal Channel crossings. The storage of boats in Germany was revealed by a BBC investigation last year.

The chancellor said his government would “do our homework immediately” and expected it would not take long to push through parliament after the summer recess.

There are also plans for a direct rail link from London to Berlin, and for British and German students to take part in exchanges, which have declined since Brexit.

Merz said he very much hoped that the first people who might see a practical difference from the friendship treaty would be students, so that the younger generation could drive relations between the two allies in the future.