Merkel’s second EU Council Presidency begins on Wednesday. The focus should be on climate protection and digitization. But in pandemic times, the Chancellor is once again in demand as an EU crisis manager.
By Christian Feld, ARD Capital Studio
She smiles. She is enjoying the moment. It is June 27, 2007. Angela Merkel is a member of the European Parliament and is receiving unusual praise. Green MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit says: “The result is ok, it is very good.” At that time, Merkel was behind a successful first presidency. After failed referendums on a constitutional treaty, the negotiations brought the EU reform back on track. Merkel also made progress in climate policy.
Thirteen years later her second presidency follows, and the corona pandemic has a firm grip on Europe. “We assume this responsibility at a time when the European Union is facing the greatest challenge in its history,” said Merkel in her government statement. Again, as is so often the case in her chancellorship, there is a European crisis to overcome. But what will become of the long-term goals? Do they get under the wheels?
Merkel has high expectations
The presidency of the Council changes in the European Union every six months. The task: to be a mediator, to make compromises as “honest brokers” in EU operations. Realistically speaking, the importance and influence of this role have changed since 2007. There is now a permanent Council President. It is currently the Belgian Charles Michel. He is also negotiating the seven-year EU budget. Frenchman Michel Barnier is responsible for the Brexit negotiations.
And yet: “The expectations of the German Council Presidency are high. And that is expressed very diplomatically,” said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas during a visit to Sofia recently. Germany is the largest and financially strongest EU member state. Above all: Merkel is Merkel – by far the longest-serving boss on the European stage. She has experienced many European crises since her first presidency. Her experience and pragmatic political style could be helpful in the current situation, says Günter Bannas, who has watched Merkel as a correspondent for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” for decades: “She accepts the challenges as they come.”
“Corona Development Fund” indicator and seven-year budget
Will that also lead to the goal if the 27 EU countries struggle for a lot of money in the short term? Among other things, it is about a corona development plan of 750 billion euros. Various questions are controversial: How much is there as a grant, how much as a loan? Under which conditions? “The bridges that we still have to build are huge,” said Merkel after a video summit by the EU leaders. Nicolai von Ondarza of the Science and Politics Foundation says that the German presidency will be judged by the negotiations on development funds and the seven-year budget: “If Germany succeeds in negotiating this, then it really was a successful presidency.”
Merkel had recently taken a big and surprising step. Together with French President Emmanuel Macron, she submitted a proposal for the development fund. Merkel cleared a thick red line for her and her party: In the pandemic, the EU should temporarily be able to collectively incur debts through its budget. In an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and other European media, Merkel said it was imperative that Germany not only think of itself, but that it was ready for an “extraordinary act of solidarity”.
No celebrations on Wednesday
The Federal Government has long since revised its original work program for the Council Presidency, but it still wants to stick to its long-term goals: climate protection, digitization, the reform of EU asylum policy, relations with China and the United States. How much strength will remain in acute crisis mode?
The Greens MP Franziska Brantner demands that the multi-billion dollar construction aid “must be invested bindingly in the future, not in the past”. Her FDP colleague Alexander Graf Lambsdorff emphasized that the presidency had to deal with bankruptcies and jobs first: “And then you can talk about other issues too – about climate protection, about the further development of the European Union.”
When the German Council Presidency officially begins on Wednesday, there will be no major celebrations in Berlin. Times are too serious. And Merkel is back in the role that runs like a thread through her chancellorship: European crisis manager.
