Germany updates: Cabinet approves family reunification curbs

For Germany's new foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, building a good relationship with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio couldn't be more important. So important that he flew a 13,000-kilometer round-trip to meet with Rubio for a total of 45 minutes.

But while Rubio was all smiles as they shook hands in the State Department, there were no questions allowed for the traveling journalists. If there had been, the deep gulf that's opened up in US-German relations could have been laid bare. 

Less than an hour earlier, Rubio had announced plans to impose visa restrictions on foreign officials deemed to be guilty of censoring US nationals — making it clear that he had Europeans in mind. This followed Rubio's recent accusation that Germany was acting like a "tyranny" in its approach to the far-right AfD party, and Vice President JD Vance's broadside against European democracy at the Munich Security Council earlier in the year. 

Speaking to the German press after the talks, Wadephul said he had just become aware of Rubio's latest announcement and that it had not come up for discussion. He also went on to stress that freedom of expression is a core German value. 

Seeking to accentuate the positive, Wadephul repeated his backing for US President Donald Trump's call for spending 5% of GDP on defense, and said Germany was well on its way to taking on more responsibility for European security. He called on the United States to work with Europe on ending the Ukraine war and tackling Iran's nuclear program.

What's not clear is if Rubio was in a listening mood. Or if any of this matters much until the two men's bosses, Donald Trump and Friedrich Merz, finally meet. The German side is keenly awaiting that encounter, hoping that it will do something to bridge that gulf.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged Wednesday to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems as he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Speaking alongside a visiting Zelenskyy in Berlin, that under an intensified cooperation agreement Germany "will strive to equip the Ukrainian army with all the capabilities that truly enable it to successfully defend the country." 

That would include upgraded domestic missile production. Some of the advanced weapon systems that Kyiv's Western partners have supplied to Ukraine during the more than three-year war were subject to range and target restrictions.

There have been concerns that if the weapons struck Russia, the Kremlin might retaliate against the country that provided them and suck NATO into Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.

"Ukraine will be able to fully defend itself including against military targets outside its own territory" with its own missiles, Merz added at the joint news conference. 

However, he declined to say whether Germany will supply its advanced Taurus long-range cruise missile to Ukraine, which long a request by Kyiv and a step that Berlin has resisted.

Both Merz and Zelenskyy criticized the Kremlin's effective rejection of an unconditional ceasefire proposed by the US, which Kyiv accepted, and its delay in responding to proposals for a settlement.

Zelenskyy called for deeper defense cooperation across Europe and with the United States while in Berlin, stressing the need for long-range capabilities and sustained military funding to ensure Ukraine's resilience.

"We need sufficient long-range capabilities. That's why we must be certain of the financing of our army and the stability of Ukraine," he said.

He said the cooperation projects already exist. "We simply want (the missiles) to be produced in the quantity we need," Zelenskyy said at the news conference.

Click here to read DW's live Ukraine updates.

Germany's labor office said on Wednesday that the number of unemployed increased in May by 34,000 in seasonally adjusted terms to 2.96 million, a higher rate than expected by analysts.

The number of unemployed is 197,000 higher than in May last year, the Federal Employment Agency said.

The seasonally adjusted employment rate remained unchanged in May from the previous month at 6.3%, the highest level since December 2015 excluding the pandemic.

The new figures come as the number of unemployed people in Germany approaches the 3 million mark for the first time in a decade.

A total of 634,000 job vacancies were registered with the Federal Employment Agency in May, around 67,000 fewer than a year ago.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with newly appointed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin to seek increased military support amid intensified Russian airstrikes.

Since taking office three weeks ago, Merz has launched diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire and maintain Western backing for Ukraine, as European leaders criticize Russia for stalling peace talks.

You'll find more of DW's coverage of the visit here.

The German Cabinet has approved draft bills on curbing possibilities for certain groups of refugees to bring their families to Germanyand abolishing fast-track citizenship for "well-integrated" migrants.

The restrictions on family reunification would affect immigrants in Germany with so-called "subsidiary protection status" — that is, people who lack complete refugee status but are allowed to remain in the country owing to the threat of political persecution in their homelands. 

Rules allowing certain migrants to apply for German citizenship after three years instead of the normal five were introduced by the previous coalition government.

The two draft bills, proposed by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, must still be passed by the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament.

The planned suspension of rules allowing some refugees to bring their families to Germany is viewed very critically by some human rights groups.

A case like that of Mohammed (last name not given to DW), who fled the Syrian civil war, highlights the problems the suspension might cause to many people who have left their home countries to seek shelter in Germany.

Mohammed made the decision to make the dangerous journey to Germany through Libya and across the Mediterranean to Italy together with his son, who suffers from cerebral atrophy, in the hope of getting medical treatment and one day being reunited with the rest of the family in Germany.

Two and a half years later, he is still waiting for his wife and two daughters to receive permission to join him.

"Before I came to Germany, I didn't know it would be so difficult," he told DW.

You can read more in this article:

Germany plans to suspend family reunification

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet with new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Wednesday, with their talks expected to focus on German military support and efforts to end the war unleashed by Russia's full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

Germany has been the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States.

Zelenskyy's visit comes shortly after Merz announced that Ukraine's allies, including Germany, are no longer putting any range restrictions on weapons they are supplying to Ukraine to allow the country to attack military sites well within Russia. 

However, he has so far not stated whether Germany will supply Ukraine with 

Russia has recently stepped up its missile and drone attacks on its neighbor despite ongoing US-led efforts to obtain a ceasefire followed by a lasting peace.

Click here for more on DW's Ukraine updates from May 28, 2025.

Judges have dismissed a climate case brought against RWE by a Peruvian farmer asking the energy giant to help fund defenses against potential flooding due to melting glaciers.

The decision that has been ten years in the making.

Read more from DW's coverage of the case here.

The chairman of an association representing the Turkish community (TGD) in Germany, Gökay Sofuoglu, has said he believes the planned abolition of rules allowing accelerated naturalization for some migrants will not have serious consequences.

The TGD chairman told newspapers from the Funke media group that the change "does not affect many people. And those who are affected will just wait another two years."

His remarks come as the Cabinet is to discuss a draft bill put forward by conservative Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt that foresees repealing rules introduced by the former coalition government allowing particularly well-integrated migrants to apply for German citizenship after three years.

Fast-track encouraged volunteering

Despite not condemning the change, Sofuoglu said it was a shame, as the possibility of fast-track citizenship had encouraged people to volunteer in groups such as the Red Cross or fire brigades, moves that would have denoted them as "well-integrated" and thus eligible for quick naturalization.

He also voiced the opinion that Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt was letting himself "be driven too much by the AfD," or the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which espouses a very harsh migration policy. 
 
Under standard naturalization procedures, people are eligible to apply for German citizenship if they have been living legally in Germany for five years.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt will present a bill to Cabinet on Wednesday that would see curbs placed on the possibility for some migrants to have family members follow them to Germany.

Under the draft bill, which is in line with the coalition deal of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), this possibility would be suspended for two years in the case of refugees with limited protection status.

The new rules would affect refugees who have not received asylum or full protection in Germany but who are allowed to stay in the country because they could face political persecution, torture or death sentences in their home countries. Such refugees include many who have fled civil war in their countries. 

Altogether 388,074 such refugees were living in Germany at the end of March, about three-quarters of them from Syria, according to government figures.

The draft bill provides for exemptions in particularly urgent cases. 

Dobrindt says Berlin should reduce migration 'pull factors'

Dobrindt, from the conservative Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), has defended the bill in comments to the mass-circulation Bild daily.

"Until now, 1,000 people per month have been able to follow their families to Germany. That is now over," he said.

"We must significantly reduce the pull factors to Germany. This is another way of showing that migration policy in Germany has changed," he added.

However, the opposition Green Party has sharply criticized the plans, with Green politician Marcel Emmerich saying that more compassion could be expected from parties such as Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the CSU that have "Christian" in their names.

In remarks to the dailies Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten, he called the draft bill "a policy that tears families apart, drives people into isolation, heightens psychological pressure and massively hinders integration."

Guten Tag from the team in DW's Bonn newsroom, where we will be keeping you up to date on the latest events in and connected with Germany.

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