Chancellor Friedrich Merz is hosting leaders from several European Union net contributor countries in Berlin to advocate for a smaller EU budget. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, ahead of key negotiations this autumn. Merz has invited representatives from the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, and Denmark, although the final list of participants has not been confirmed by the German government. These countries are collectively referred to as 'the frugals' in Brussels, as they seek to limit the size of the EU's next seven-year budget and alter spending priorities.
Merz has called for cuts amounting to several hundred billion euros from previous budget proposals, stating that the European Commission's suggested budget of nearly €2 trillion for the 2028-2034 period is 'unaffordable and unbalanced.' A subsequent proposal from Cyprus was slightly smaller but still exceeded the current budget.
In related news, an estimated 15,800 people have died in Germany due to high temperatures since the beginning of the year, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). This figure, as of July 26, indicates that Germany has already surpassed the total heat-related deaths recorded in any full year since 2016. The previous high was approximately 9,000 deaths in 2018, another notably hot year. Over half of this year's estimated deaths, around 9,600, were linked to a record heatwave at the end of June, which saw temperatures reach nearly 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit). June 2026 was recorded as the hottest ever in western Europe, according to the EU's Copernicus climate service.
Additionally, the leading candidates for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) engaged in a heated debate ahead of Saxony-Anhalt's state election. State Premier Sven Schulze, the CDU's candidate, accused AfD challenger Ulrich Siegmund of lacking a future plan for the state, while Siegmund asserted that the AfD has a clear strategy that includes reorganizing migration to free up funds for investments in areas such as hospitals. He expressed confidence that the AfD would lead the state government alone, stating, 'Saxony-Anhalt is the beginning of political change in Germany.'