euro|topics - Angela Merkel's environmental challenge

05/09/2008

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Main focus of Thursday, June 7, 2007

Angela Merkel's environmental challenge

The European press is taking advantage of the G8 summit in Germany to analyse Chancellor Angela Merkel's action on the international scene. Will she manage to obtain concrete progress in the struggle against global warming?

ABC - Spain

The daily is counting on the political talent of Angela Merkel to succeed in making progress in the struggle against global warming and to obtain concrete results by the end of the G8 summit. "The German chancellor is the right person to guarantee the defence of a very sensitive cause, which counts a lot in the eyes of European citizens. Ambitious commitments have already been made in the fields of technology and energy, in order to create models that are compatible with respect of the environment. And the German [EU] Presidency's efforts clearly deserve a positive echo during this summit, because they are pointing the right way. This way, being followed by Europe, would be far more realistic if it were to benefit from the general support of other countries." (07/06/2007)

Le Temps - Switzerland

The journalist Richard Werly considers that the G8 summit is opening up a "geopolitical avenue" to the German chancellor. "The decision, made by the 27 EU members, to enforce the constraining reduction of their CO2 emissions by 2020, places her in a good position to convince her colleagues to do as much. Her refusal, at the recent EU-Russia summit in Samara, to let down Poland, whose meat is being unduly boycotted by Moscow, proved how firm she stands facing the Kremlin's injunctions and energy blackmail. The end of George Bush's calamitous mandate is her other chance: it is very much in the interest of the American president to give guarantees to the chancellor, whose country borders Central Europe which, in NATO, trembles before Moscow. A tenacious mediator when it comes to discussing missiles and gas, a stubborn pioneer when it comes to dealing with climate change, Angela Merkel has what it will take to leave her mark on Heiligendamm." (07/06/2007)

The Independent - United Kingdom

"Ms Merkel is riding a wave of popularity at home. She is in complete charge of her party and her governing coalition. Despite predictions that she would never last six months as Chancellor, given the slimness of her electoral majority and the ambitious politicians around her, she has not only survived, but flourished", notes the daily. "The question now is whether Ms Merkel can extend the personal authority she has won at home to the international stage. In Europe, she is gaining a reputation for quiet and competent diplomacy, and the flying visit she received from the new French President on the day of his inauguration held out the prospect of a new Franco-German dynamo for the EU. She has yet to prove herself in the self-important G8, where too much modesty could prove a handicap. If she can tease concessions on climate change from President Bush tomorrow, she should step up and claim the credit." (07/06/2007)

» To the complete press review of Thursday, June 7, 2007

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