Lothar Matthäus has played 150 international matches for Germany, Miroslav Klose scored 71 goals for the national team. And Angela Merkel? They have 107 EU summits on their books. Always the length of several football games, once it was even four days and four nights in a row. The goals she scored in the process are not recorded in any statistics. But the colleagues agreed at their presumably last appearance on Friday in Brussels: The Chancellor is leaving a gap that could hardly be bigger. Charles Michel summed it up when he paid tribute to Merkel in front of the assembled team: "The European Council without Angela is like Rome without the Vatican or Paris without the Eiffel Tower." could communicate little.
Thomas Gutschker
Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.
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Knowing that Merkel does not like surprises and honors, Michel introduced his parting words and asked the Chancellor for indulgence. "Your departure from the European stage touches us politically, but also fills us with emotion." He recalled how he first met her, when he was still the Belgian Prime Minister. Merkel was even interested in the details of the coalition agreement and the complexity of the Belgian institutions. You have to know: Belgian federalism is much more complicated than German federalism. Michel praised her extremely sober and unpretentious manner - and added: "This is a very powerful weapon for seduction." Merkel is a "compass and a highlight of the European project". As a gift he presented her with an artist's rendering of the Europa building,where the council has been taking place since 2017. In Brussels it is called the “Space Egg” - because the meeting rooms are located in a giant egg that looks like it fell straight into the house from the sky.
The appreciation of the Luxembourg Prime Minister was also personal. Xavier Bettel has been in power since 2013, succeeding Jean-Claude Juncker, who at the age of 18 took the top spot in the European summit rankings as head of government and five others as commission president. "Ms. Merkel was such a compromise machine," said Bettel on Friday. "Very often, when things didn't go on, Angela ... tak, tak, tak - and then came a suggestion." "I will miss you, Europe will miss you", said Bettel, "it is a great person who will leave us".
Alexander Schallenberg, the Austrian Federal Chancellor, attended his first summit as head of government.
He paid tribute to Merkel as follows: “Someone who has been in this position for so long, who has shaped the European Union in such a way, will of course leave a gap behind.
She was a haven of calm. "Alexander De Croo, Belgian Prime Minister, recalled Merkel's role in the migration crisis of 2015." She is someone who has shaped Europe in 16 years and has helped us to make good decisions, with a lot of humanity in difficult ones Times. "