In this interview with the "Bild", Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks about European achievements and the social advantages offered by the European Union. She also advocates establishing a European army.
Text of the interview:
BILD: Fifty years ago European unity was a question of war and peace. Today the EU prescribes the form of chairlifts in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. For many people, Europe is synonymous with a flood of regulations and prohibitions. Chancellor, what has gone wrong?
ANGELA MERKEL: The idea of European unity is today still a question of war and peace. We should never take peace and democracy for granted, even if the longest period of peace in the history of Europe has come to be the norm for us, thanks to the European Union. Most citizens today see the European Union as a huge internal market, within which they can travel and work freely, in which products from all member states can find their way unobstructed onto the shelves of stores across Europe. This has brought us greater prosperity than was conceivable when markets were isolated.
BILD: But we also have more regulations and more laws!
MERKEL: Yes. But that means we have one set of standards to ensure that everyone competes on the same terms. The chairlift manufactured in Germany is also licensed in Austria and Romania. That generates jobs in Germany. Without the European internal market Germany would not be the world champion exporter it is today.
BILD: Do the bureaucrats in Brussels not take it too far in many cases?
MERKEL: Sometimes, that is certainly the case. For instance a sun protection guideline was to regulate the need for sunshades in all European beer gardens. That is obviously taking things too far, and we Europeans must get a firmer hold on this sort of thing. I have convinced my colleagues that we should get rid of one quarter of all compulsory forms in the EU by 2012, for instance. The European Parliament, which has become much more confident as a counterweight within the European system, will help us here.
BILD: What annoys you most about the EU Commission?
MERKEL: The distorted image of an all-powerful super-bureaucracy in Brussels is obviously incorrect. Nevertheless, we must be careful when certain issues are seen within the EU Commission purely from the point of view of competition, without taking into account national traditions, which have grown and developed over time. There can be no doubt that competition is important, and that it must be protected by an independent EU Commission, but politics also needs scope to make its own way. Take, for example, Germany's long tradition of sport for all, organised largely on a voluntary basis. That cannot be equated with commercial gyms.
BILD: If you could meet one of the founding fathers of the EU, Konrad Adenauer, Jean Monnet or Robert Schuman, what would you ask?
MERKEL: How they came to trust to one another such that they were prepared to tackle a project of such gigantic dimensions – a common Europe in the wake of the terrible experiences of the world war started by the Hitler regime. And I would ask Konrad Adenauer about the speech he gave when the Saarland returned to Germany at the beginning of 1957, in which he said that one day East and West Germany too would be reunited. I would like to ask him if he really believed that at that time, and what made him so sure.
BILD: You grew up in the German Democratic Republic, the former East Germany. What did Europe look like, seen through the iron curtain?
MERKEL: Western Europe represented freedom, but it seemed a long way away. When you never have a chance to find out what Italy is like, or France, where the French revolution took place, your ideas about this part of Europe remain somewhat fragmentary.
BILD: Where did you go first in Europe after the wall fell?
MERKEL: My first trip after the wall fell was not inside Europe but to California, because my husband had to go there professionally. I was sorry then that I couldn't go first to Paris or Rome. My second trip took me to Italy.
BILD: What part of Europe do you like best? Where would you like to spend a year?
MERKEL: I can think of lots of places. I would love to live in Central France, for instance, preferably in the country.
BILD: Have you been to all 27 member states of the EU?
MERKEL: No. I still haven't been to Estonia or Latvia, for example.
BILD: What can all Europeans be proud of when they look back over the last fifty years?
MERKEL: We have learned to live together in peace, without renouncing our own unique characters. Karel Capek, a great European from Prague, expressed it inimitably, when he said, "The Creator made Europe small, and even divided her up into tiny parts, so that our hearts could find joy not in size but in diversity."
We can also be proud that the gap between the poor and rich in Europe has not opened up so far as in other parts of the world. We can be proud of freedom, the rule of law and of the fact that almost 500 million people can live safely in Europe today. Who would have believed that fifty years ago?
BILD: Is there anything you are ashamed of as a European?
MERKEL: Ashamed is perhaps putting it too strongly, but I am saddened when I think of those moments of weakness when we did not measure up to our responsibilities. For instance in the early nineteen nineties, when we Europeans were unable to prevent a bloody conflict in the Balkans, on our own continent.
BILD: Is the spectre of war in Europe now banished for all time?
MERKEL: Yes. At least in the member states of the European Union. And that must be our goal for the entire continent.
BILD: If you imagine that there were no EU, what would you miss most – apart from peace?
MERKEL: I simply cannot imagine that. Without the EU it would be extremely difficult for us to compete on the global market with such strong countries as the USA, China and India. Strong as we are, Germany or any other European country would simply be too small. Together we Europeans are stronger.
BILD: So those are the assets of the EU. Yet nobody today is rejoicing the way they did in the nineteen fifties when borders were thrown open. When Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January, hardly anybody even noticed. Why?
MERKEL: Europe has become the norm for us. That is why. In 1957, when the Treaties of Rome were signed, only 12 years had elapsed since the end of the Second World War. Only a few years earlier, Germany and France had been arch-enemies. Today, hardly anybody can remember those times. Thank goodness! Today Europe is just like domestic policy in many ways, and thus not particularly exciting.
At the same time, we do see a certain amount of impatience, because with 27 member states it often takes a while for us to get our act together. To change this we need the European Constitutional Treaty, which would bring decision-making mechanisms into line with the increased number of member states.
And people still have many fears. Let's take the example of enlargement: it brings stability for the whole of Europe, opens up a whole series of new export opportunities for us, and gives the EU more weight in the world. Nevertheless many people see not the benefits, but only the costs...
BILD:... while we are on the subject of costs: Germans have the feeling that, with net contributions totalling 7 billion euros a year, they are always the paymaster of the EU.
MERKEL: We are not the only net contributor, and per capita we are not even the largest contributor. You must take into account all the items on the bill: what would it cost us, if the countries of Eastern Europe did not make economic progress? If the gap in environmental standards and wage levels did not begin to close? I can tell you, the bottom line is, every cent we give Europe is money well invested.
BILD: Are the Germans not often the losers in Europe, because the others simply assume that as good European we will, at the end of the day, open our purses?
MERKEL: I learned from Helmut Kohl that Germany does best if we take the interests of smaller countries into account in European decisions. And if we have made compromises possible in this way, the final result has always been good for Germany too. Thus, at my very first summit meeting in December 2005, I was able to negotiate a rebate of almost one billion euros for us
BILD: Are the Germans particularly exemplary Europeans?
MERKEL: We are far from being perfect. In recent years Germany has infringed the terms of the Stability Pact for the euro, for instance, by running up higher debts than permissible. Overall, however, Germans are good Europeans, partly because we know that this is in our own best interests.
BILD: Are you proud to be German? Or are you proud to be European?
MERKEL: I am happy to be German and I love Germany. And I am equally happy that Germany is part of Europe. However, when I am in Africa, or Asia or America I have the same feelings as many other Germans - I feel very much European.
BILD: Everybody knows about the "American way of life". What is the "European way of life" for you?
MERKEL: I can sum that up in one word – tolerance. Our model in Europe aims to achieve a balance and to seek out common ground. That means, for example, that higher earners pay higher rates of taxes and that we have a solid social system. But we must take care to ensure that social security goes hand in hand with individual liberty and responsibility. And we will have to stand together to defend our values, because the world is in a constant state of flux. We aim to describe this European way of life, which makes us different, in the declaration to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the European Community.
BILD: Where will the future take us, Chancellor? What will Europe look like in fifty years? Will Russia and Israel be part of the EU? And for how long will Turkey have been an EU member state?
MERKEL: The question of full membership will no longer be so relevant in fifty years, because close links between the EU and neighbouring states will also be attractive. This will help us to establish a greater zone of stability and peaceful interrelations. Within the EU itself, we will have to move closer to establishing a common European army. The EU Commission will become better able to act on the basis of clearly regulated responsibilities. There will be no federal state of Europe in fifty years. We will retain our diverse nation states.
BILD: Which European over the last fifty years do you admire most?
MERKEL: I can't name any one. There are so many who have achieved so much. I admire Konrad Adenauer for managing to bring Germany into the European fold after the war. And only a few days ago I was most impressed when I read a text about Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, part of the civilian resistance under the National Socialists. In the middle of the war, in 1941, Moltke prophesied precisely how Europe would develop: no customs, a common currency, a European army, European economic policy. What a visionary!
BILD: What do you think you will have to do to become an honorary citizen of Europe, like Helmut Kohl?
MERKEL: I would not like to compare myself with Helmut Kohl, who is a unique European citizen and politician.
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