Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet will be visiting French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday.
In advance he campaigned for more European security.
Berlin / Paris - Around two and a half weeks before the federal election in 2021, Armin Laschet (CDU) will be in Paris on Wednesday (September 8).
French President Emmanuel Macron receives the Union's candidate for chancellor for bilateral talks in the Élysée Palace.
In advance, Laschet called for an expansion of the common European security system.
Expansion of European security: "Experience threats where borders become less important"
"When it comes to security, we have long since ceased to be able to think in terms of national categories alone," said the CDU chief on Wednesday shortly before his visit.
A common European security system should help fight cross-border extremism and terrorism.
"Because we experience threats in which borders become less important," says Laschet.
This applies to cross-border crime, extremism, cybercrime and also international terrorism.
The EU's security policy capacity to act must be expanded, said Laschet.
This includes the expansion of the border protection agency Frontex, the development of Europol "into a kind of European FBI in matters of cybersecurity" as well as cooperation centers for police cooperation in Europe.
Laschet visits Paris: German-French exchange of young people as a topic
North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister is officially traveling to Paris in his capacity as Franco-German cultural representative. At the meeting with Macron, Laschet also wants to promote a broader Franco-German exchange, especially young people, whose families do not take such a thing for granted. "Cultural exchange must never be just an experience of the elite," said the CDU federal chairman. On Monday, Vice Chancellor and SPD candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz was a guest at Macron.
The terrorist trial of the attacks on November 13, 2015 in the city begins on Wednesday in Paris. Islamic State (IS) extremists killed 130 people in a coordinated series of attacks. They carried out a massacre in the Bataclan concert hall. "The attacks on the capital of our French friends hit us in the marrow and are still moving us today," said Laschet. There were attacks on the liberal way of life in Europe. "They urge us to resolutely defend our values and rights."
(Ph / dpa)