Economic power is more important than military power only so long as you do not face military threats.....like when somebody else provides your defense for you for example.
I’ve got an idea. If Germany doesn’t want to be viewed with suspicion by much of the rest of Europe, how about stop trying to boss other countries around by trying to order them to submit to a flood of military age muslim male invaders so as to take at least some of the pressure off of Germany when it stupidly invited millions of them in a few years ago? In other words, quite trying to be bossy and clean up your own messes for a change instead of trying to dump your problems onto others/freeload off of others.
The invitation to the Mahometans was a deliberate act. Take note that the EU leaders are still not perturbed by it, and their demand for more imperialistic centralized power continues apace.
Putting EU member states in debt traps after 2008 was an exercise of the economic power referred to here.
And the EU’s dream of having its own military is not for defense, but offense. Note that they falsely turn the USA into their Emmanuel Goldstein.