Merkel Signals Openness to Eurozone Reforms

Date: 20-06-2017
Source: The Wall Street Journal

German chancellor says she could envision supporting French proposal for common finance minister and budget

BERLIN—German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the first time sketched out the outlines of a bargain with France on fixing the governance of Europe’s single currency, in the clearest sign yet that the two biggest eurozone countries are inching closer toward reconciling sharply different views on the matter.

Germany could support two central French demands—the appointment of a eurozone finance minister and the creation of a common budget—if some conditions were met, Ms. Merkel told business leaders in Berlin on Tuesday.

“We can of course think about a eurozone budget as long as it’s clear that this is really strengthening structures and achieving sensible results,” she said.

In a striking softening of previous language opposing money transfers and joint liabilities among member states, Ms. Merkel said “we could think about a common finance minister…if we aren’t pooling liabilities in the wrong place.”

The End of the Trump Administration?

Jorge G. Castañeda

Jorge G. Castañeda was Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2000-2003, after joining with his ideological opponent, President Vicente Fox, to create the country’s first democratic government. He is currently Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University, and is the author of The Latin American Left After the Cold War and Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara.

JUN 15, 2017, Project Syndicate

MEXICO CITY – The world’s view of US President Donald Trump’s administration is changing for the worse. In fact, the chaos and controversy that have marked Trump’s short time in office have deepened doubts, both inside and outside the United States, about whether his presidency will even survive its entire four-year term.

Europe’s perspective was articulated most clearly by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. After a contentious NATO summit and a discordant G7 meeting, she concluded that the US, under Trump, can no longer be viewed as a reliable partner. “The times in which we could rely fully on others,” she stated pointedly, “are somewhat over.”

Merkel’s statements were driven partly by disagreement between Trump and Europe on climate change, trade, NATO (particularly Article 5, its collective defense clause, which Trump refused to endorse), and relations with Russia. But disagreement on such issues reflects divisions within Trump’s own administration, raising questions about who, if anybody, is actually in charge.

Interview with Jean-Claude Juncker

Date: 09-06-2017
Source: DER SPIEGEL

Europeans ‚Must Learn World Affairs‘

In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, 62, discusses the EU’s growing self-confidence, its differences with President Trump and Brexit negotiations in the wake of an unclear election outcome in Britain.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker

SPIEGEL: Mr. Juncker, have you recently found yourself looking at your mobile phone anxiously when you wake up each morning?

Juncker: No. Why would you think that?

SPIEGEL: We thought you’d want to know what Donald Trump tweeted during the night.

Juncker: If Mr. Trump has tweeted anything worth mentioning, I’ll be told. It doesn’t cause me to sit up agitated in bed in the morning.

SPIEGEL: But it’s different when Angela Merkel sends you a text in the morning, isn’t it?

Juncker: She texts me directly and never without reason. And that interests me. We have a solid and close relationship.

SPIEGEL: Does Donald Trump represent the last chance for Europe?

Isolating Trump: Merkel’s G-20 Climate Alliance Is Crumbling

Date: 09-06-2017
Source: DER SPIEGEL

The German chancellor had been hoping to isolate Donald Trump on climate issues at the upcoming G-20 summit in Hamburg. But Merkel’s hoped-for alliance is crumbling, underscoring Germany’s relative political weakness globally. Many countries are wary of angering the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had actually thought that Canada’s young, charismatic prime minister, Justin Trudeau, could be counted among her reliable partners. Particularly when it came to climate policy. Just two weeks ago, at the G-7 summit in Sicily, he had thrown his support behind Germany. When Merkel took a confrontational approach to U.S. President Donald Trump, Trudeau was at her side.

But by Tuesday evening, things had changed. At 8 p.m., Merkel called Trudeau to talk about how to proceed following Trump’s announced withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. To her surprise, the Canadian prime minister was no longer on the attack. He had switched to appeasement instead.

What would be wrong with simply striking all mentions of the Paris Agreement from the planned G-20 statement on climate, Trudeau asked. He suggested simply limiting the statement to energy issues, something that Trump would likely support as well. Trudeau had apparently changed his approach to Trump and seemed concerned about further provoking his powerful neighbor to the south.

The Renewal of Europe’s Center?

Harold James

Harold James is Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation. A specialist on German economic history and on globalization, he is a co-author of the new book The Euro and The Battle of Ideas, and the author of The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle, Krupp: A History of the Legendary German Firm, and Making the European Monetary Union.

JUN 5, 2017 Project Syndicate

PRINCETON – British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are different in many ways. May unexpectedly assumed her position last year after the Brexit vote, when her predecessor, David Cameron, resigned. Macron has even less experience: the presidency, which he just took over last month, is his first-ever elected position. Meanwhile, Merkel has served as chancellor since 2005 (and a parliamentarian since 1991), making her Europe’s longest-serving head of government.

But these three European leaders also have a lot in common. They are all in a relatively strong position domestically. Indeed, May and Merkel both appear likely to win their countries’ general elections this week and in September, respectively, and Macron secured a decisive victory in France. More important, they are all building a new type of politics to fill the gap left by the decline in traditional political parties’ influence.

Angela Merkel’s Challenge to Europe

Joschka Fischer

Joschka Fischer was German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998-2005, a term marked by Germany’s strong support for NATO’s intervention in Kosovo in 1999, followed by its opposition to the war in Iraq. Fischer entered electoral politics after participating in the anti-establishment protests of the 1960s and 1970s, and played a key role in founding Germany’s Green Party, which he led for almost two decades.

JUN 5, 2017 Project Syndicate

BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has never been regarded as an especially inspiring orator. In fact, she has a reputation for gently talking her audiences to sleep. But that all changed a few days ago. While campaigning in the Munich suburb of Trudering, Merkel, speaking from a beer tent, delivered a powerful speech that dominated headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.

With Whitsunday fast approaching, many wondered if Merkel had been inspired by the Holy Spirit. If not that, she may have been spurred to action after having spent many hours in the company of US President Donald Trump during the recent NATO and G7 summits. And Germany’s upcoming federal election undoubtedly loomed large in her mind.

But Merkel’s speech was no mere “beer tent Goslar.” She was not emulating former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who, campaigning in the town of Goslar in January 2003, declared that Germany would not participate in the Iraq War, regardless of whether it had the United Nations Security Council’s backing. There was far more to Merkel’s Trudering speech than mere electioneering.

Donald Trump makes it hard for Europeans to keep their cool

Date: 01-06-2017
Source: The Economist

A week of sniping between Germany and America shows the cost of responding to provocations

IT WAS a friendly, local political event: a sweaty tent at a street festival in Munich on a Sunday afternoon. Angela Merkel arrived to a brass-band serenade and battled her way through the beery crowd to reach the podium. But her speech on May 28th made global news. Alluding to America and Britain, the chancellor said: “The times in which we could totally rely on others are to some extent over, as I have experienced in the past few days.” To prolonged cheers she added: “We Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands.”

This followed NATO and G7 summits at which Donald Trump offended European sensibilities. The president attacked the continent’s leaders for (mostly) failing to meet the alliance’s target for defence spending of 2% of GDP, and pointedly neglected to mention Article 5, NATO’s mutual-defence clause. In one meeting he reportedly called Germany “bad, very bad”, and threatened tariffs on the country’s car exports to America. Mrs Merkel was venting her irritation. It was a risky move.

Paris Disagreement Donald Trump’s Triumph of Stupidity

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other G-7 leaders did all they could to convince Trump to remain part of the Paris Agreement. But he didn’t listen. Instead, he evoked deep-seated nationalism and plunged the West into a conflict deeper than any since World War II. By SPIEGEL Staff

June 02, 2017  06:00 PM, Spiegel Online 

Until the very end, they tried behind closed doors to get him to change his mind. For the umpteenth time, they presented all the arguments — the humanitarian ones, the geopolitical ones and, of course, the economic ones. They listed the advantages for the economy and for American companies. They explained how limited the hardships would be.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the last one to speak, according to the secret minutes taken last Friday afternoon in the luxurious conference hotel in the Sicilian town of Taormina — meeting notes that DER SPIEGEL has been given access to. Leaders of the world’s seven most powerful economies were gathered around the table and the issues under discussion were the global economy and sustainable development.

The newly elected French president, Emmanuel Macron, went first. It makes sense that the Frenchman would defend the international treaty that bears the name of France’s capital: The Paris Agreement. „Climate change is real and it affects the poorest countries,“ Macron said.

Then, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reminded the U.S. president how successful the fight against the ozone hole had been and how it had been possible to convince industry leaders to reduce emissions of the harmful gas.

Finally, it was Merkel’s turn. Renewable energies, said the chancellor, present significant economic opportunities. „If the world’s largest economic power were to pull out, the field would be left to the Chinese,“ she warned. Xi Jinping is clever, she added, and would take advantage of the vacuum it created. Even the Saudis were preparing for the post-oil era, she continued, and saving energy is also a worthwhile goal for the economy for many other reasons, not just because of climate change.

Blind Spots in Trump’s Trade Tirade Against Germany

Date: 31-05-2017
Source: The New York Times

President Trump and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany

WASHINGTON — The last time relations between the United States and Europe were this bad — in the spring of 2003, during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq — the administration of George W. Bush decided to “punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia,” in a phrase attributed to the national security adviser at the time, Condoleezza Rice.

Now, President Trump has flipped the formula, punishing Germany while largely ignoring France. (His conciliatory approach to Russia seems more or less in line with the Mr. Bush of 2003.)

The difference this time is trade. Germany runs a chronic, yawning trade surplus with the United States, which Trump administration officials say Germany has widened by exploiting a weak euro to put American exports at a disadvantage. That, more than differences over NATO, Russia or climate change, is driving a wedge between the two countries.

Trump und Europa: Merkels Reality-Check

Date: 30-05-2017
Source: SPIEGEL

Die deutsche Kritik an Trump sorgt auch in den USA für Aufsehen. Dabei sagen Merkel, Gabriel und Schulz nur, was längst nicht mehr zu leugnen war: Die Welt hat sich radikal verändert – und muss reagieren.

Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel, US-Präsident Donald Trump

Donald Trump hat seine kleine Weltreise längst vergessen. Der US-Präsident lief wieder twitternd durchs Weiße Haus. Er legte am Soldatenfriedhof Arlington einen Kranz nieder. Er beriet mit seinen Anwälten, wie er sich am besten aus der eskalierenden Russlandaffäre ziehen kann. Alles beim Alten.

In Deutschland aber scheint auf einmal nichts mehr wie früher. Nachdem sich Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel am Sonntag ungewohnt kritisch von Trump abgesetzt hatte, zogen Vizekanzler Sigmar Gabriel und SPD-Kandidat Martin Schulz am Montag flott nach. Der FDP-Vorsitzende Christian Lindner dagegen warnte vor einer transatlantischen Entfremdung: „Es verbindet uns mit den USA mehr, als eine einzige Präsidentschaft zerstören könnte.“

Das stimmt natürlich. Trotzdem hat Trump sein kurzfristiges Ziel erreicht: Er hat Unruhe gestiftet in der Nachkriegsallianz, hat mit seinen rüden Gesten und Worten eine Debatte ausgelöst, die zwar spätestens seit seinem Wahlsieg überfällig war, doch nun prompt aus dem Ruder zu laufen droht.