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Crisis again and again: the fight against the corona pandemic has determined the second presidency of the EU Council of Merkel. But some would have wanted more than the Chancellor’s crisis management.
By Christian Feld, ARD capital studio
It is a situation that the Chancellor knows very well: Germany holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU for six months, and the word crisis dominates. That was the case as early as 2007, when Angela Merkel took office for the first time. At that time, referendums on an EU constitutional treaty failed. It got the EU reform back on track.
Thirteen years later: Presidency of the Council in difficult conditions in a pandemic. The European Union faces the “greatest challenge in its history,” the foreign minister said in her government statement in the summer.
Angela Merkel is by far the most experienced and longest-running head of government on the EU stage. His time at the Chancellery is entering the final phase. Merkel is publicly staying away from oversized terms as a legacy.
For many observers, the end of the Council Presidency was once again an exemplary demonstration of the Merkel method. “It was the ultimate expression of his way of leading Europe,” says Jana Puglierin of the expert group of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Not only the scientist points out the great progress achieved in the EU budget package for a total of 1.8 trillion euros.
Knallhartes Ringen
It was a tough fight to the end. Not only was the multi-year budget at stake, but also an additional amount of money to deal with the pandemic.
Merkel even crossed her own dark red line for this and agreed to go into debt jointly. However, Hungary and Poland threatened to veto a new mechanism that would link the disbursement of EU money to a review of the rule of law. It was an extremely difficult negotiation: “In the final phase there were great doubts about whether it could be done,” says in retrospect a senior official at the Federal Foreign Office.
A Plan B has been in the works for a long time, without Poland or Hungary. However, that was an option that would have violated Merkel’s core iron principle: preserve unity, keep the store together as much as possible. And if, keyword Brexit, one member wants to leave, the rest have to stay more closely united.
Is it a good compromise?
In the blocked billions of billions, the Chancellery, which sets the tone for the German government’s European policy, but also Merkel herself led the talks that led to the breakthrough. In the end, as is often the case in the EU, a compromise emerged. In a democracy there is never the optimum because you always have to find a majority, said Michael Roth, a European minister of state at the Foreign Ministry, in an interview with the ARD capital study In mid December. But he was able to represent this commitment “very, very well and with full inner conviction.”
Merkel received much praise for the success of the negotiations. Council President-in-Office Charles Michel praised being “fully involved” “with creativity, great determination and will, and an unwavering commitment to Europe.” Katja Leikert, vice-president of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, speaks of an “exceptional achievement” that European cohesion has been preserved.
But there are also critical voices, even in the EU Parliament. For the political scientist Puglierin of the ECFR, there is still a coup. Merkel should have been tougher to Hungary and Poland: “I find it unsatisfactory that Merkel never really broke with Orban and did not advocate for expulsion from the European People’s Party.”
Deep cracks
The European Union has never been an event of pure harmony. But does the project have a permanent future if the cracks are too deep? What if perspectives on common values diverge too much?
The budget lock is just one example. Other: Cyprus recently blocked EU sanctions against Belarus to achieve sanctions against Turkey. Merkel’s strength is keeping the EU compromise machine running even in the most difficult situations. Is this pragmatic approach sensible because you simply can’t do more? “Ignoring the deep gaps in the EU will only make problems worse in the long run,” says Franziska Brantner, the Greens’ European politician in the Bundestag. ARD capital study: “Angela Merkel lacks the courage to confront these conflicts openly and develop a vision of a Europe of different speeds.”
The trillion package has been launched and new climate targets have been set. Those are big points on the bright side. However, the fight against the pandemic has also sidelined many issues, such as how the EU views its relationship with the United States and China. How do you intend to achieve the goal of “global political capacity” declared by former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker? After all: shortly before the end of the year, the EU and China in principle agreed to an investment agreement. However, asylum reform did not really advance.
“Together. Making Europe strong again” was the German government’s motto in July. Indeed, Angela Merkel’s second presidency focused on what runs like a red thread throughout her time as chancellor: the management of acute crises in Europe.
