The year 2025 will bring not only a new U.S. administration but also a new EU Commission. What will these changes mean for Germany and the United States, and what aspirations does Chancellor Scholz’ coalition have for the European Union? Almut Möller, Director for European and Global Affairs at the European Policy Centre, joins the Zeitgeist to discuss. What would different election outcomes mean for European action on competitiveness and security? How does President Ursula von der Leyen’s ambitious Commission align with Germany’s interests?



Host

Jeff Rathke, President, AGI

Guests

Almut Möller, Director for European and Global Affairs, European Policy Centre

Peter Rashish, Vice President and Director, Geoeconomics Program, AGI



Transcript

Jeff Rathke

Welcome to all of the listeners to the Zeitgeist. We have today as our guest someone who is well-known to us and perhaps to some of you out there as well. Her name is Almut Möller. Almut, Welcome.

Almut Möller

Thank you very much, Jeff.

Jeff Rathke

And Peter Rashish, director of the Geoeconomics program and vice president of AGI, is with us, too. Hello, Peter.

Peter Rashish

Hello, Jeff.

Jeff Rathke

Almut Möller is director for European and Global Affairs at the European Policy Centre. She is a former state secretary and representative of the city of Hamburg, representing Hamburg in Berlin, in Brussels, and internationally for five years, and she just finished up that job this past summer. And before that, she’s been in a number of positions at think tanks as well as a researcher in places as varied as Beijing, Cairo, and Washington, DC. We won’t ask you to tell us which of those places you like best! Almut is now splitting her time between Brussels and Berlin, because Brussels is, of course, the home of the EPC. We’re talking today about the impact of the U.S. presidential election on Germany and Germany’s leadership role within the European Union. Important, of course, a few days before the U.S. elections—we are speaking on November 1st, the Friday before the November 5th vote—and also as a new European Commission is taking office, the second term for Ursula von der Leyen and with a new cabinet. So, there we are. We are looking at a historic election coming up next week, Almut. So, let’s start there. In your previous role as State Secretary for the city-state of Hamburg, you sat in the Bundesrat, in the second chamber of the German legislature, and you were there for all sorts of debates, touching on foreign affairs and domestic. How do you think Germans—official Germany especially—view a Trump versus a Harris presidency? Do people see stark differences and significant consequences for Germany? Or I sometimes hear from some Germans who sort of dismiss both sides as: They’re both kind of protectionist. They’re both looking to Asia instead of to Europe, and while of course there’s a difference between them, the main lines for Germany and Europe would be the same in either case. How do you think? How do you see it and how do you think people in decision-making roles see it?

Almut Möller

Well, Jeff, first and foremost, thank you very much for having me. It’s great to be with you and Peter and always good to be with AGI. Washington and my time there was very formative for me. I do say that as someone who’s not a trained transatlanticist, and why do I say that at the beginning, before I respond to your question? It shows you that I’ve learned to think about the world through the lens of Europeanization, which was laden with hope in the 1990s.