The members of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Cabinet met in Brandenburg on Tuesday for a two-day summit after the summer break to discuss the energy crisis as well as Germany's security strategy.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is also at Schloss Meseberg to meet with Scholz. The two are set to discuss the challenges posed by the Russian war in Ukraine.

"We will discuss the security situation very intensively," Scholz told reporters before the summit. "We will also take the opportunity to carefully begin the discussion on the national security strategy."

He added that Sanchez, who has already set out such a strategy for Spain, would be invited to participate in the discussion.

What did Scholz say before the summit?

Regarding the energy crisis, the chancellor said that his government acted quickly to get ahead of the problem, pointing to the filling of Germany's gas storage facilities ahead of schedule.

"Coal power plants are being connected to the power grid again, bit by bit, and as you know, we are also looking into whether it makes sense to restart nuclear power plants for the winter through a careful stress test," Scholz said.

"We're in a much better situation now than was foreseeable several months ago and we are much more able to deal with the threats coming from Russia over the cutting off of gas supplies," he said.

The chancellor said his cabinet was also looking to introduce a new package to protect households and businesses from the worst impacts of the crisis.

Edited: Mark Hallam

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