(14 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin – 14 May 2025
1. German chancellor Friedrich Merz and deputy chancellor Lars Klingbeil
2. German Eagle emblem
3. Lawmakers
4. Merz walking towards podium
5. Mid of audience
6. SOUNDBITE (German) Friedrich Merz, German chancellor:
“I have promised the European institutions a new reliability from Germany. The times when Germany simply abstained from voting on key European policy issues are over. Those times should be over.”
7. Mid of journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (German) Friedrich Merz, German chancellor:
“I have spoken to President Trump twice on the phone in the past few days. I am grateful for his support for the initiative for a thirty-day unconditional ceasefire. Such a ceasefire can open a window in which peace negotiations become possible in the first place. It is of paramount importance that the political West, ladies and gentlemen, does not allow itself to be divided. And that is why I will continue to make every effort to ensure the greatest possible unity between the European and American partners.”
9. Wide of attendees in the German parliament session in Berlin.
10. Wide of photographers
11. SOUNDBITE (German) Friedrich Merz, German chancellor:
“We will therefore do everything we can to get Germany’s economy back on track for growth. We want to invest and reform. The two belong together. In terms of economic policy, I am also convinced that we can use our own strength to once again become a growth engine that the world looks at with admiration.”
12. Close up of woman
13. SOUNDBITE (German) Friedrich Merz, German chancellor:
"We have funds available that can be financed through new debt. Let me be frank about this. We must be extremely careful with these options. Because these debts trigger interest payments. And they also have to be repaid one day. They can therefore only be justified if we use this money to permanently and sustainably increase the value of our infrastructure and improve the overall performance of our country. Then it can be justified, but only then."
14. Wide of a photographer
15. SOUNDBITE (German) Friedrich Merz, German chancellor:
"Today we receive news that an acute famine could threaten Gaza. It is a humanitarian obligation, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues of all parties involved, and I emphasize all parties involved, that a famine in the region is averted as quickly as possible."
16. Mid of photographers
17. Wide of German flag waving outside the Reichstag
STORYLINE:
New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday he will work to bring Europe and the U.S. together in their approach to Ukraine, enable his country to build Europe’s strongest conventional army and make Europe’s biggest economy a “locomotive of growth” again.
Conservative leader Merz took office a week ago after winning Germany’s election in February, ending a six-month period in which the European Union’s most populous member lacked a government with a parliamentary majority.
He has already made a flurry of trips to Berlin’s EU allies and visited Kyiv with his French, Polish and British counterparts.
“Europe expects something from us,” Merz said in his first policy speech to parliament. “The new German government accepts this responsibility,” he added, promising that “we will offer our partners and friends reliability and predictability.”
The new government brings together Merz’s center-right Union bloc with Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats.
Germany met that target thanks to the fund, but it will be used up in 2027.
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