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German Chancellor Freidrich Merz told the World Economic Forum (WEF) that Germany and the European Union (EU) have “wasted incredible potential” during his speech Thursday.

Merz, a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said the EU has wasted its potential for growth by curtailing freedom and responsibility.

“Both Germany and Europe have wasted incredible potential for growth in recent years by dragging feet on reforms and unnecessarily and excessively curtailing entrepreneurial freedoms and personal responsibility,” the Chancellor stated in his remarks to the WEF in Davos, Switzerland. “We are going to change that now.”

“We must reduce bureaucracy substantially in Europe,” Merz continued. “The single market was once created to form the most competitive economic area in the world. Instead, we have become the world champion of over-regulation. That has to end.”

“Security and predictability take precedence over excessive regulation and misplaced perfection,” he added.

Merz also stated in his speech that Europe “is not at the mercy” of what he described as a “new world order.”

“The old world order is unraveling at breathtaking pace. We have entered an era where only power counts, a dangerous place,” the chancellor said, according to multiple outlets. “We do not have to accept this new reality as fate.”

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Merz recently admitted the country’s shutdown of nuclear power plants was a “serious strategic mistake” in a speech to the German Chamber of Industry.

The chancellor said in November 2025 that he would “begin discussing repatriation of Syrians in Germany,” after previously refusing to work with a right-wing party advocating for the policy.

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