I'm John Batsur with Judy Dempsey in Berlin, a senior scholar for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, commenting for me on the European Union in major concerns about the future.

We started with climate, but we moved to the immediate tragedy of Ukraine.

I learned from the F.T. in these last days,

two stories that are very illustrative of the European Union's struggles, not only to pay for

things, but to work together. The first story, coalitions of the willing are Europe's path to

ever closer union. However, this underlines that a more

pragmatic form of federalism could be key unlocking progress on important issues such as building

a fighter aircraft for each other. The French and the Germans have been working up to this point

on a joint fighter.

They're now moving their vision from an actual airplane to a cloud defense that means that

the software works for every member of the 27 members of the European Union.

This is a larger story of shifting from a peace assumption for the next decades to a war

assumption for the next decade. And to that, I add something that Judy referenced when

the Bundestag first held elections last year, which is that the German infrastructure is inadequate for the German people,

let alone defenses in the event of war. But now I learn it's true throughout the European Union.

The railroads don't always match. So getting a train from Germany or Paris to the eastern wing of the EU of NATO is considered unlikely.

Judy, it's a widespread problem I learned, not just German infrastructure.

You noted when the first attention by Mr. Bairz to infrastructure that was part of national defense. You noted that that

was a wise thing. Is it moving in Germany? If we can build the roads in Germany, it's a good start.

Where is that ambition for Mr. Merritt? Thank you. John, the ambition for Mr. Merz cannot be isolated based on the national level.

These countries are not isolated from each other.

They are embedded inside the European Union and there are no borders.

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