Briefings
Berlin and EU, no easy relationship
Angela Merkel, l'incontournable
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Who’s afraid of Germany? (4)
Merkel’s Nein is wrecking the EU
24 November 201116Die Tageszeitung Berlin -
Press review
Angela rules the roost
24 October 20117Presseurop -
Germany
Helmut Kohl lectures Merkel
26 August 20112Presseurop -
Eurozone crisis
Merkel and Sarkozy must rise to the occasion
21 July 20114Le Monde Paris -
18 July 20115PresseuropDer Spiegel
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28 March 20112Der Spiegel Hamburg
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Eurozone summit
Merkel holds the key
11 March 20112The Economist London -
Economic crisis
Iron chancellor will have her way
3 March 2011PresseuropPresseurop -
Eurozone Crisis
Merkel is no Marshall
19 November 20101PresseuropHandelsblatt -
27 October 20102Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich
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Stability Pact
Merkel stands alone
26 October 2010PresseuropFinancial Times Deutschland -
Eurozone crisis
Angela’s choice
25 March 2010Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
European Union
Will Merkel answer Europe's call?
8 March 2010PresseuropNewsweek
Alone against all, the Chancellor says ‘No’ to a supporting mandate for the ECB and ‘No’ to common euro bonds. In Germany too, more and more experts are warning that her firm stance on discipline and rules is plunging the eurozone into chaos. 
The European press is unanimous: at the 23 October summit, it was the German Chancellor who dictated her conditions to partner countries — including France — on what should be done to save the euro and Europe’s over-indebted countries from the crisis. 
Settling the Greece crisis and ensuring the future of the single currency; the high stakes of the Euro Zone Summit require that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy finally assume their responsibilities, warns the French daily Le Monde in an editorial. 
The Greens scored big in Baden-Württemberg, a German state that had been governed by the conservative Christian Democrats for 58 years. The biggest loser could be Chancellor Merkel, whose recent missteps contributed to the debacle. Nevertheless, her power remains stable, and she now knows what she must do to get re-elected in two years. 
On 11 March, as Eurozone leaders gather in Brussels to find a way out of economic crisis, only one woman, it seems, can prevent the EU splitting in two competing blocs. But is Angela Merkel up to the task? 
Angela Merkel tells it like it is. That's the problem. Her plan to push through penalties for overindebted states at the 28 October European Council meeting is a good one, says Die Süddeutsche Zeitung. But it is also guaranteed to put the backs up of many members states, who will see an over-dominant Germany behind her good sense. 
Other states can moan and groan to their hearts’ content: after the Greek fiasco, Angela Merkel is forcing fiscal discipline on Europe. After all, the political work of whole generations is at stake, alerts the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Une Europe à l'allemande
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3 February 2012304Die Zeit Hamburg
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European Council
Angela Merkel has gone too far
31 January 201215PresseuropDer Tagesspiegel -
Eurozone crisis
No-one wants a German budget commissar
30 January 201261PresseuropPúblico, Le Monde, Ta Nea & 2 others -
Italy
Relax, Germans!
30 January 201223Die Zeit Hamburg -
Eurozone crisis
Save the euro – get rid of Germany
27 January 2012120The Times London -
Who’s afraid of Germany? (5)
Europe – an awfully wonderful family
25 November 201119Die Zeit Hamburg -
Who’s afraid of Germany? (3)
Goethe, in technocrat’s clothing
23 November 201115Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Who’s afraid of Germany? (2)
Europe sprechs German now
22 November 201110Berliner Zeitung Berlin -
Eurozone Summit
We are all at Germany’s mercy
27 October 201122Eleftherotypia Athens -
Debt crisis
End of the age of stability
12 September 20113Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Eurozone bailouts
Karlsruhe says yes, but...
7 September 20113Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Germany
Diplomacy without a voice
5 September 20114Die Zeit Hamburg -
20 June 201123To Vima Athens
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European Union
Germany a sceptical spectator
27 April 20115PresseuropHandelsblatt -
Germany
Über alles, but nice
15 March 20112The Guardian London -
Europact
Berlin – treasurer and policeman
14 March 2011PresseuropPresseurop -
Debt crisis
An EU made in Germany
3 February 201113Die Zeit Hamburg -
Money
Deutschmark redux
14 December 20104Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung Frankfurt -
13 December 20101PresseuropLidové noviny
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Greek crisis
Germany has a problem with Europe
19 May 20102Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Institutions
Berlin has dealt a blow to European unity
14 July 20091Financial Times London
“Hitler”, “Occupying Power" – it’s always the same. Berlin is asserting its stance on the euro crisis and, in turn, is being abused with comparisons to the Nazis. Die Zeit ponders how Germans should respond. 
The idea of pinning the second Greek bail-out on the acceptance by Athens of supervision by a European budget commissioner, a German proposal unveiled on the eve of the January 30 European Council meeting, is nothing less than a violation of state sovereignty, according to the European press. 
Italy has long cursed Germany as a know-it-all, and yet respects it as the head of the class. With the arrival of the very proper Mr Monti this is changing, and Berlin will have to get used to some lessons from Rome. 
By foisting fiscal austerity on its Eurozone partners while stubbornly refusing an enhanced role for the ECB, and greater mutual support on national debt, Germany is a greater hindrance than a help to the single currency, argues Anatole Kaletsky. 
A family with strict parents, black sheep and tough love: that’s today’s Europe, says an editor at Die Zeit, who sends out a call to defend the historically unprecedented culture of solidarity. 
What Germany’s leadership of the EU means isn’t very clear – least of all to the Germans themselves. A Spiegel columnist looks for the answer in two books, wandering between the lost soul and the genius of the country. 
“Europe is speaking German,” trumpeted CDU deputy Volker Kauder. Just let’s not overdo it, warns the Berliner Zeitung. An association of free democracies should look a bit different. 
The leaders of the Eurozone have reduced Greece’s debt and increased the amount of EU aid. However, for Eleftherotypia, which notes on its front page that “German tanks are in the bailout,” the decision will put the Greeks and all Europeans under the heel of Berlin. 
The resignation of the ECB’s chief economist, Juergen Stark, accelerates a trend that the Germans do not want to fess up to, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: The end of the policy of stability at any cost to avoid state bankruptcy. 
The German Constitutional Court has validated the Eurozone's support mechanisms, but ultimately, if Europe really wants to get organized, the Federal Constitution will have to be rewritten and approved by the people, warns columnist Heribert Prantl. 
With an estranged foreign minister on one side and a less than united coalition on the other, the government of Angela Merkel must steer through an increasingly difficult international context. It's an uncertainty that affects all of Europe. 
In publishing the image of a Greek flag draped over the coffin of the single currency, Der Spiegel has revealed the hidden goal of German policies: German hegemony, argues Athenian daily To Vima. 
After a turbulent 20th century, Germany has emerged as Europe’s economic and political powerhouse. As the European Union becomes increasingly tight-knit, this major role, it seems, is one the reunified country isn't entirely eager to take on. 
To save the eurozone, do as the Germans. Much repeated by Angela Merkel, this message is getting through to her partners. But for the crisis-ridden EU, such is the price to pay, argues Die Zeit. 
More and more Germans see leaving Euroland and returning to the long-lost Deutschmark as the preferred way out of the crisis. That is a highly risky but ultimately feasible option, say some economists. 
If the Greek crisis is the most serious that the European Union has ever had to deal with, it’s now also a test of what Europe means for Germany, writes Gazeta Wyborcza. 
July 14, MEPs inaugurate the newly elected European parliament, many with the aim to strengthen the assembly's influence on European affairs. But the recent ruling by German constitutional court on the Lisbon Treaty, has called into question the future of European construction. Allemagne-France, le drôle de couple
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2 February 201215PresseuropLe Monde, Le Figaro, La Croix, Libération
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Portugal
Silva takes stand against “Merkozy”
13 October 20111PresseuropPúblico -
Eurozone crisis
Would Kohl or Mitterrand really do better?
10 October 20112De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
European integration
Paris and Berlin play it for Brussels
9 February 20112The Times London -
Debt crisis
The axis reclaims its power
4 February 20111Le Monde Paris -
10 December 20101PresseuropLe Figaro
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European Council
They’re leading us to the abyss
28 October 20101El País Madrid -
Stability pact
Fury over Merkel/Sarkozy putsch
22 October 2010PresseuropLa Tribune -
Stability Pact
The Merkel / Sarkozy hijack
20 October 2010The Guardian London -
France / Germany
Squabbling makes Europe insignificant
21 June 2010Die Zeit Hamburg -
Institutions
Franco-German couple present united front
15 June 2010PresseuropLe Figaro
A probable candidate for re-election, the French President seems intent on proposing an economic project calqued on the German model — a strategy which has surprised the French press. 
Are EU leaders failing to step up as real leaders in tackling the current crisis, as we so often hear? According to a Volkskrant columnist, it's more the political division of our time and public opinion that is putting the brakes to their progress. 
The “pact for competitiveness” is not so much a Franco-German takeover of the EU but a step towards a federal Europe, argues Times columnist Anatole Kaletsky. Which is why its outline for an ‘economic government’ in the eurozone won’t ease the effects of the financial crisis. 
The ‘competitiveness pact’ hammered out between Paris and Berlin could yet be a milestone in the construction of Europe, says Le Monde. If only they had not relegated the other member states and the Commission itself to mere onlookers.
In Brussels, 28/29 October, France and Germany will try to persuade their EU partners to modify some of the EU's cornerstone texts in order to create a culture of budgetary rigour. A simplistic and useless idea, according to a Spanish editorialist. 
Ahead of the EU summit to stabilize the troubled euro, the French president and German chancellor not only agreed on new budget rules, but have also called on reopening the Lisbon Treaty. A stitch-up, mutter officials at the Commission. 
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy could not have chosen a worse moment to fall out, comments Die Zeit. If the EU's two major players cannot settle their differences, Europe runs the risk of losing its capacity to influence global affairs. Editorial
Being top of the class is not always easy. A founder member of the European Union and home to its largest population and most powerful economy, Germany sits at a crossroads between Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern Europe. In the current period of economic crisis and amid fears about the future of the euro, it has also become the main pillar of the EU, whose support is critical for every decision, and whose funds are essential to any effort to bail out weaker member states.
However, notwithstanding its pivotal role, the idea that Germany has a problem with the EU is increasingly gaining ground. Berlin has been criticised for a lack of solidarity towards countries in difficulty, its reluctance to take incisive action, and its desire to impose on other nations the austerity model that it has implemented with such apparent success.
One political figure in particular has become the focus for many of these reproaches: Chancellor Angela Merkel. Powerful but on occasion too mild-mannered, indecisive but inflexible, dominant but also constrained by a complex political system, she has now come to symbolise the Germany of today in Europe. And let’s not forget her occasionally troubled alliance with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which has highlighted the insufficiencies of a relationship that is critical for Europe.
At a time when claims that Germany wants to dominate Europe are clearly informed by a vision of history that no longer holds sway, the articles gathered in this briefing explain why she is now the somewhat reticent leader of a Europe where idealism has been superseded by pragmatism.
