Overview

• The European Commission president received the 2025 Carlomagno Prize in Aachen for her visionary leadership in navigating the EU through global tensions.
• She emphasized the urgency of European strategic autonomy, laying out defense, innovation, enlargement and cultural unity as core priorities.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reaffirmed Berlin’s pledge to support long-range weapon production for Ukraine and noted a new constitutional amendment for near-unlimited defense spending.
• King Felipe VI warned against rising nationalist and euro-skeptic movements, urging unity to confront challenges such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and US trade frictions.
• The ceremony brought together past prize laureates and underscored the EU’s drive to strengthen its security and global standing in the face of shifting geopolitical pressures.