Merz meets both EU Council President António Costa and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Parliament Speaker Roberta Metsola during five intense hours on Friday.
In a way, I'm coming home to Brussels, explains Merz – who started his political career as an EU parliament member in 1989.
It's important that Germany takes a more active role in the EU. We're facing major challenges that we can only meet together, he says at his press conference together with von der Leyen.
At the same time, he is immediately clear that he wants to go further than the Commission when it comes to reduced bureaucracy and regulatory simplifications proposed.
The next logical step is to withdraw certain directives – I'm happy to talk about the CSDD guidelines, says Merz, referring to the rules on companies' global responsibility for the environment and working conditions that have been partially paused even before they came into effect.
