Anton Hofreiter, the chair of the European Committee in the Bundestag and a member of the Greens, delivered sharp criticism of the German chancellor.
When speaking to RTL and ntv, Hofreiter said he was unsure whether the chancellor was ill‑prepared and called Friedrich Merz’s remarks-highlighting Europe’s competitiveness at the EU summit beginning today-“absurd”. He added that “it will obviously mainly be about other things”. The points on “bureaucracy reduction” have already largely been agreed upon and only need to be signed.
Hofreiter also dismissed the notion that EU leaders can afford to focus on bureaucracy cuts while wars raged-Russia’s war with Ukraine and the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran. “I’m not against reducing bureaucracy, but they have far more important things to do today” he said.
