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The Hill
3 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump to meet with Germany's Merz in Washington next week
President Trump is set to meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz next week in Washington, marking the first in-person meeting between the two leaders. Merz, the leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who was elected as Germany's leader in early March, is expected to visit Trump at the White House on Thursday, June 5, Germany government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Saturday in a press release. The discussions between the two countries' leaders will focus on bilateral relations between the two, along with discussions around the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, developments in the Middle East and trade policy, according to Kornelius. A White House official confirmed the meeting details to The Hill on Saturday. Merz, similar to Trump, has been pushing for a ceasefire deal in the more than three-year-long war between Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a meeting with Merz on Wednesday in Berlin. There, Merz said that Germany will bolster its backing of Ukraine as part of a more than $5.5 billion agreement, including sending over more military equipment and increasing weapons manufacturing in Kyiv. Germany's chancellor has clashed with members of Trump's administration over the country's government marking the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as an 'extremist' political entity. 'Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That's not democracy—it's tyranny in disguise,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote earlier this month on social media platform X. 'What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election — but rather the establishment's deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.' Vice President Vance piled on, accusing the government of trying to 'destroy' AfD, which also considers tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk a strong supporter. Merz has pushed back on Trump administration's officials meddling in Germany's domestic politics. 'We have largely stayed out of the American election campaign in recent years, and that includes me personally,' Merz said in an interview with Axel Springer Global Reporters Network that was published on May 7. He added that he told U.S. officials that 'we have not taken sides with either candidate. And I ask you to accept that in return.'
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
German–Greek relations face crisis over refugee policy
When the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, visited Germany in mid-May, it was a welcome break from the difficult time he has been having at home. The Economic Council of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, awarded him the Ludwig Erhard Foundation Gold Medal, which gave the conservative politician the opportunity to highlight his successes in growing the Greek economy by 2.3% in 2024 and reducing unemployment by 9.5% in the same year. However, Mitsotakis' meeting with Merz also had its downside, especially with regard to refugees and migration. In theory, the two conservative governments are in agreement: both are determined to stop irregular immigration to Europe. Both have appointed known hard-liners as ministers responsible for migration: the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) politician Alexander Dobrindt in Berlin, and Makis Voridis, a politician with a far-right background, in Athens. And both have decided that from now on there will be strict controls on who can and cannot come to Europe. In practice, however, the two countries have very different interests. Greece lies on the EU's external border. It is a first reception country for refugees and migrants dreaming of a better life in the richer countries of northern and western Europe. Consequently, asylum seekers already registered or recognized in Greece have for years been traveling on from there to Germany, France, or Scandinavia. So far, very few of these migrants have been sent back to Greece. However, the Merz government intends to facilitate their deportation. There is now a legal basis for this, after the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled in mid-April that migrants did not face any extreme hardships in Greece. The presiding judge, Robert Keller, said the yardstick for assessment was whether the migrants had access to "bread, bed and soap." Since this ruling, Germany could, in theory, send several thousand migrants back to Greece — especially young, healthy men traveling alone. The government in Athens does not want this. When asked about the German court's decision, Makis Voridis, the Greek minister for migration, said he did not currently have an application from Germany on his desk. "But we will not be very friendly toward any request," Voridis warned. According to the Greek ministry for immigration and asylum, 56,066 irregular immigrants were registered last year — around 155 per day. In the same year, a total of 219 people returned from Germany to Greece. Only 473 recognized refugees returned to Greece last year from all the EU countries combined, including Germany. So far, in 2025, up until May 16, there have been 114 returnees, 48 of whom came from Germany. Returns in these numbers do not constitute an appreciable burden for Greece. However, if Germany really does decide it wants to send back an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 migrants who have traveled on from Greece, it will create problems for Athens. The Greek borders have been quieter since the start of this year. By April, 8,295 people had arrived — a 30% drop on the same period last year. "Thanks to effective border protection and improved cooperation with Turkey, the immigration flows have reduced by around 30% in the first four months, although the influx from Libya has increased by 174%," Minister Voridis said on May 22. Now the minister for migration is hoping for an agreement with Libya, similar to the one Italy signed with the government in Tripoli in 2017. With financial and technical support from Italy, the Libyan authorities intercepted thousands of people who had already crossed the Mediterranean, and took them back to Libya. Previously, the migration route went from western Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Now, there is a new route from Tobruk in eastern Libya to the Greek island of Crete. However, the Tripoli government does not control the east of the country. Although he has announced that he will soon be visiting Libya, Voridis currently has no dialog partner with whom he could make a deal — and he certainly does not have the money he would need to convince every militia in the North African country to shut down the route between Tobruk and Crete. In June 2023, after setting off from Tobruk, the fishing trawler Adriana sank off the Greek coast near the town of Pylos. It was overloaded, with several hundred people on board. An estimated 600 migrants drowned. Reports by survivors and investigations by international researchers suggest that there were serious failures by the Greek coast guard. Now, a Greek naval court has brought charges against 17 coastguards, some of them senior officers. They include the captain of the coastguard ship LS 920, which was significantly involved in the loss of the Adriana. He is accused of causing the sinking of the migrant boat, and faces charges of "dangerous interference of maritime transport" and "failure to provide assistance." Furthermore, all crew members of the Adriana, two duty officers, and the then head of the Greek coast guard are accused of having exposed the migrants on the ship to life-threatening danger. It is the first time the Greek judiciary has brought a criminal prosecution like this against high-level coast guard representatives. This article has been translated from German.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Retirement in Europe: How long will we have to work?
Representative image (AI) On May 22, the Danish parliament passed legislation raising the retirement age. The law, approved by 81 lawmakers with 21 voting against, sets the retirement age at 70 for all citizens born after December 31, 1970. Currently, the retirement age in Denmark is 67. By 2030, it will rise to 68, and by 2035 to 69. Last year, 47-year-old Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated that she would be open to reviewing the system once the official retirement age reached 70. International comparisons show just how differently retirement ages are regulated. In some countries, people continue to work even longer than they are legally required to. Will Germany follow Denmark's lead? Germany's new government is still trying to figure out how to deal with the country's struggling statutory pensions system. At a party convention of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Stuttgart recently, Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, praised himself and his Social Democratic coalition partner for having "written many good things into the coalition agreement" — the key issue of how to shore up the finances of the chronically underfunded pension system, however, isn't among them. Merz warned that "the way things are today can only last for a few more years at most." For Bernd Raffelhüschen, a former government economic advisor, the Danish reform effort is worth emulating. "We should raise the retirement age to 70 quickly so we can still catch at least part of the baby boomer generation," the economist told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper recently, referring to the large cohort of people born at the end of the 1950s and early 60s, who are currently retiring in huge numbers. Raffelhüschen said that because 1 million Germans will be leaving the workforce every year until 2035, this would push pension contributions higher for younger generations. Beveridge vs. Bismarck Pension financing in Europe follows two main models named after their founders: the Bismarck model, based on social legislation introduced by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the 19th century, and the Beveridge model, developed in the 1940s. The Beveridge system is a welfare model that provides universal coverage and is tax-funded. It was devised by British economist William Henry Beveridge, a member of the UK Liberals' parliamentary faction. The Bismarck model, on the other hand, is an insurance-based system in which both workers and employers pay into a fund. In simplified terms, it's a so-called pay-as-you-go system where the working population finances the pensions of retirees through their contributions. This is why comparing pension systems across Europe is difficult — even more so as many countries use hybrid models combining aspects of both. The specifics, often complex, also vary widely between nations. Demographics, and the benefits of working longer — or shorter Germany's Bismarck-based system is increasingly under strain due to demographic changes. As the population ages and the workforce shrinks, there are more retirees and fewer people to fund the social insurance schemes. At the same time, people are living longer due to rising life expectancy, which means they draw pensions for more years. This puts mounting pressure on pay-as-you-go pension funds, with the result that either contributions must keep rising, or pension benefits may stagnate, failing to keep up with inflation. Alternatively, the overall pension level may have to drop Of course, a shorter working life and earlier retirement are appealing for most people as they can leave work before their physical capabilities decline and use the final third of their lives for meaningful activities or more time with family. There are also economic benefits, as more leisure time creates more opportunities to spend money, thus stimulating consumer demand and the broader economy. But working longer can also have advantages. Many people feel fit and engaged well into their 60s so that they may enjoy continuing to work, pass on their knowledge, and value interaction with younger colleagues. Employers benefit from retaining experienced staff and established routines, which may also help to mitigate the skilled labor shortage in Germany. Retiring a personal decision Looking at international statistics reveals that legal retirement age rarely aligns with when people actually stop working. In most cases, people retire earlier because their bodies can't keep up, or in creative professions, because of burnout. In a few countries like New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, or Greece, people often work beyond the official retirement age. Whether they do so voluntarily is unclear. The reasons are often too personal to be captured by statistics.\ The so-called gross replacement rate — the ratio of pension benefits to the final salary — plays a major role in people's decisions. If that gap is too wide, some workers can't afford to retire. The threat of old-age poverty could be reduced if pensions were high enough to provide financial security after a long career. But that would require money that the pension system currently lacks. On the other hand, raising contribution levels too much would limit workers' ability to save privately for retirement.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Germany Tightens Migration Rules On Family Reunification, Citizenship
Friedrich Merz, chancellor of Germany. (Photo by) The new German coalition government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz has approved a set of measures to, among other changes, restrict family reunification for people under humanitarian protection in the country. The changes to migration policy are being brought in to, according to the government, 'relieve pressure' on the country's reception and integration infrastructure. The government has also scrapped a system under which people who showed exceptional progress integrating into German society would be offered expedited citizenship. Chancellor Merz and his conservative CDU party were elected in February 2025 in an election dominated by the issue of immigration, particularly irregular migration and asylum. The stridently anti-immigration AfD party came in second for the first time, building on successes it had already seen in earlier state elections. Before even taking office, Merz had signaled his intention to further restrict migration policy in Germany. While this was in some part a reaction to the surge in popularity for the AfD, Merz, along with the CDU, have long been known as hardliners on immigration, despite former CDU leader and Chancellor Angela Merkel's famous 'we can do it' moment, welcoming Syrian refugees in 2015. In the years since that famous speech migration has remained one of the top political issues in Germany, with anti-immigration parties and commentators tying the issue to security and decrying diversity initiatives in the German economy. In recent years, the previous government of Olaf Scholz, under pressure from state leaders and others, introduced various measures to 'tighten' migration policy. In 2024 the country closed large sections of its land borders and announced measures to expel people trying to cross into Germany and speed up deportations of rejected asylum seekers. The government of Chancellor Merz, who is himself to the right on the issue of migration, is now continuing to tighten the rules on immigration, in light of a perceived 'crisis' in the country. By restricting family reunification for people in Germany under what is known as 'subsidiary protection' (a type of humanitarian protection for people who do not meet the criteria for asylum but are still regarding as needing protection), the government are trying to reduce the amount of people entering the country. Family protection is considered a right under various human rights regimes, but the government is arguing that the amount of people entering is too much for the system to cope with. At the same time, the government has scrapped what was known as the 'fast-track' path to citizenship. Under the old rules, people who showed that they were integrating rapidly into German society, by becoming fluent in German, for instance, or taking part in various voluntary integration programs, would be offered a pathway to naturalize after just three years instead of the usual five. Germany currently is suffering significant labor shortfalls in various sectors, owing to the effect of 'demographic change' - people aging out of the workforce. Researchers and many policymakers broadly agree that those shortfalls cannot be addressed without immigration. Subsequent governments have introduced measures to increase foreign workers, but these measure largely focus on so-called 'high-skilled' immigrants. In this light, it appears the government considers the family members of people seeking shelter are to be an easy demographic to cut down on, thereby being seen to be 'doing something' on the issue of migration, while still leaving room to allow in more 'valuable' workers.
Muscat Daily
3 days ago
- Politics
- Muscat Daily
Germany moves to suspend refugees' family reunification
Berlin, Germany – 'Before I came to Germany, I didn't know it would be so difficult. I just didn't know. You know, we're men, and we men are not used to raising children,' said Mohammed. He fled the civil war in Syria in 2014 with his wife, two daughters and two sons to Iraqi Kurdistan. Life was so difficult for the family there that his wife, two daughters and one son returned to Syria. Mohammed, who did not wish to give his family name, made the decision to make the dangerous journey to Germany through Libya and across the Mediterranean to Italy together with his son, who suffers from cerebral atrophy, in the hope of getting medical treatment and one day being reunited with the rest of the family in Germany. But two and a half years after arriving in the country, Mohammed still lives alone with his 9-year-old severely disabled son and has no idea when, or if, his wife and two daughters will be able to join him. His second son died after returning to Syria, a loss made all the more painful by the separation. Housed in shared accommodation at refugee centres, a friend eventually offered Mohammed a place to stay in what he describes as a broken-down house. He said they struggle to make ends meet on social welfare. Mohammed was granted subsidiary protection status by the German authorities. The classification is for people who do not meet the specific criteria for refugee status under the Geneva Convention but who face a risk of serious harm in their country of origin, including the death penalty, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or indiscriminate violence in the context of an armed conflict. There are currently around 351,400 people with subsidiary protection status living in Germany, the majority from Syria. They receive a residence permit, it was initially for one year, in 2024 this initial period was extended to three years. They have the right to live and work in Germany and access social benefits. But while asylum-seekers and recognised refugees have the right to reunification with spouses and children under the age of 18 under German and EU law, those with subsidiary protection status do not. Now, the new coalition government of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) plan to suspend family reunification for those with subsidiary protection status for at least the next two years. On Wednesday, May 28, the German Cabinet approved the restrictions on family reunification. The draft bill must still be passed in the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, to come into effect. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said: 'The country's ability to integrate had simply reached a breaking point,' adding that cities and municipalities across the country were at their limit. Subsidiary protection status The issue of family reunification for people with subsidiary protection status has been a subject of much political debate in Germany. In 2015, the government led by former Chancellor Angela Merkel granted spouses, children or parents of beneficiaries of subsidiary protection the right to reunification. But this right was suspended in 2016 after just one year. Since 2018, the families of people granted subsidiary protection have been able to be reunited. However, the German government limits the number of visas it issues to a maximum of 1,000 per month. That has caused a lot of uncertainty for people like Mohammed and his family in Syria, who must contend with long waiting lists, lengthy bureaucratic procedures and a limited number of visas. In 2024, Germany issued around 120,000 visas for the purpose of family reunification, according to Foreign Office figures requested by Mediendienst Integration, an information service run by the Council for Migration, a nationwide association of migration researchers. Around 10%, some 12,000 visas, were issued to relatives of people with subsidiary protection in Germany. Families separated Critics, such as human rights NGO Pro Asyl, have said separation from family can place a huge psychological strain on those affected, which can have consequences for integration and also irregular immigration. Without any legal route to reunite with children, parents or spouses, some people take the risk of using irregular, often unsafe routes to reach their loved ones in Germany. Legal experts say that even if the EU Family Reunification Directive does not apply to people with subsidiary protection because it was adopted before the status of subsidiary protection was defined, legislators are still bound by Article Six of Germany's Basic Law and the right to family life enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. However, one important restriction has been introduced by the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany and accepted by the European Court of Human Rights. 'If there is an alternative of family life in another country, especially in the country of origin, then there is no automatic right of family reunification in Germany,' said Thomas Gross, an expert on German and EU law at the University of Osnabrück. Germany's Constitutional Court will ultimately have to decide whether an end to family reunification for people with subsidiary protection is legally permissible, which will most likely take years, according to Gross. Meanwhile, families like Mohammed's remain separated indefinitely by slow-moving legal and bureaucratic processes. 'It's not a question that you go to the embassy and the next day you get on a flight to Germany. It is a complicated and often lengthy procedure,' Gross told DW. A recent study found that it took anywhere from six months to more than two years before family members were issued visas by German embassies. 'It sometimes involves DNA tests, sometimes the embassy is far away in another country, which is practically impossible for many people,' said Gross. Mohammed said he has been unable to learn German or work because, without the support of his wife or other close relatives, he is effectively a full-time carer for his son, who requires regular hospital visits. His subsidiary protection visa is valid for one year, and a renewal is far from certain after a federal state court ruled that a Syrian man did not qualify for subsidiary protection status because it deemed Syria a safe country. 'There should be help from the state for my family to come here, this is an exceptional humanitarian situation,' said Mohammed. 'I mean, how am I supposed to endure this any longer?' DW
