Merz wants Europe to do more for its 'technological sovereignty'
He also wants to make cooperation in the field of technology the topic of a Franco-German Council of Ministers in the south of France at the end of this month.
This was necessary, Merz asserted, "because we need to become stronger as Europeans."
Merz had previously also visited the Helmholtz Centre for Information Security (Cispa) during an official inaugural visit to Saarland. He described its research work as "world class."
The Cispa centre is one of the top research centres in the field of cybersecurity.
"The dependencies we had on Russian gas are only part of the truth. The second part of the truth is that we are not sovereign enough in our own defence," Merz added. "And the third part of the truth is that we are also not sovereign enough when it comes to technological developments."
He added: "We must not repeat the mistake that we all made together with regard to Russian gas in our defence and in our technological sovereignty."
Germany relied on cheap Russian gas to a strong degree before Russia's attack on neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.
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