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Friedrich Merz's three-month bid to catapult Germany into the role of undisputed leader of Europe has come unstuck. His call for Europe to hand Ukraine access to 201bn (176bn) in frozen Russian central bank assets via a reparations loan was rejected at a decisive European Council meeting in Brussels. Instead, Ukraine is to be given a 90bn interest-free loan, backed by the EU's collective budget, covering two-thirds of what Ukraine will need between 2026-27.
Having already visited preferred partners such as US President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, Poland's new president, Karol Nawrocki, will on Monday evening travel to Germany, a country that Polish right-wing conservatives deeply mistrust. While there, he will meet both German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday. From Berlin, he will travel on to Paris.
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The blow to Europe's international credibility is incalculable in a world that expects the EU to stand up for reciprocity and rules-based trade, to resist Washington's coercion.
