EU summit gives Merkel big sendoff even if she might return

BRUSSELS (AP) — Angela Merkel remains to be German Chancellor and could be nonetheless when EU leaders meet once more, but they gave her a farewell celebration at Friday’s EU summit.

Attending her 107th summit, she was feted by buddy and foe alike in a casual ceremony behind closed doorways early Friday, the place they known as her something from a “compromise machine” to the EU’s Eiffel Tower.

Merkel has been the embodiment of the drive for a stronger united Europe for years since she attended her first assembly of EU leaders 16 years in the past, at a time when Jacques Chirac was nonetheless French president and Tony Blair British prime minister.

“You’re a monument,” stated EU Council President Charles Michel, including {that a} summit assembly with out her might be like “Rome with out the Vatican or Paris with out the Eiffel Tower.”

Merkel, typically utilizing the clout of juggernaut Germany to the fullest, at all times sought to maintain the EU as tightly knit as potential but additionally defended nationwide pursuits with equal fervor, particularly through the monetary disaster which noticed her conflict typically with Greece.

Ultimately, although, she embodied what the EU summit itself all too typically is. “Frau Merkel was a compromise machine,” stated Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.

So, many might be unhappy to see her go. “Your spirit and expertise will stay with us,” stated Michel. “You aren’t leaving us.”

Michel might nonetheless be proper. Merkel didn’t put herself up for re-election in final month’s German polls and her CDU/CSU Christian Democrats fared so badly, they’ll doubtless find yourself in opposition.

The Socialist SPD, Greens and free-market FDP introduced that they need to get their coalition authorities in place within the week beginning Dec. 6.

Till then, Merkel stays chancellor in a caretaker capability, and just a few days’ delay might properly see her come again to Brussels for the mid-December summit.