-EU leaders bid farewell to German Chancellor at Summit
Foreign Desk Report
BRUSSELS: European Union countries need to deepen talks about where the 27-nation bloc should be heading to in order to mitigate and solve disputes such as the current row with Poland over the rule of law, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday.
“There is the issue of the independence of justice, but also underlying (the question) which way is the European Union heading, what should be a European competence and what should be tackled by nation states,” Merkel told reporters in Brussels after what was likely her last EU summit.
“If you look at Polish history, it is very understandable that the question of defining their national identity plays a big role, which is a different historical situation than the one countries find themselves in that have had democracy since World War 2,” she said.
Meanwhile, European leaders paid warm tributes to Angela Merkel as they wound up a European Union summit, her 107th as Germany’s chancellor and likely her last as she prepares to depart office.
Before the bloc’s leaders got down to business in Brussels on Friday, they watched a two-minute video of Merkel’s summit highlights and she was presented with a farewell gift representing the Europa building where such meetings are held.
In a speech, European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs EU summits, described the 67-year-old, in power for 16 years, as “a monument”. He said gatherings of leaders without her would be like Rome without the Vatican or Paris without the Eiffel Tower.
“You are a compass and a shining light of our European project,” Michel said, and a standing ovation followed. Since attending her first meeting of EU leaders in December 2005, when Jacques Chirac was French president and Tony Blair British prime minister, Merkel has embodied the drive for a closer, more united Europe. German political parties are now in talks following the country’s election last month.
But if they fail to form a ruling coalition by mid-December, she will be back in Brussels for another summit. Until a new government is formed, Merkel remains chancellor in a caretaker capacity.
