Trouble for Merkel: Berlin Divided in Spat over EU Commmission

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/merkel-likely-to-seek-eu-compromise-with-london-a-973962.html



The appointment of the next leaders of the EU Commission has divided Europe, raising the specter that Britain could leave the bloc. London is an important ally to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and it is likely she will seek to broker a deal.

Trouble for Merkel: Berlin Divided in Spat over EU Commmission
By SPIEGEL Staff
June 07, 2014 – 12:14 PM

The mood was not a good one when Christian Democratic parliamentarians from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia met in Berlin last Monday evening. Normally, such gatherings focus on agreeing on a common line ahead of votes in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. But this time, the deputies needed to vent. Angela Merkel's grand coalition, which pairs her CDU with the Social Democrats, has been in office since last autumn. And many lawmakers within the chancellor's party are tired of the SPD presenting itself as the driving force in the government.

"We have to avoid the impression that the SPD is governing and that we, as election victor, are happy to be a part of the government," complained Wolfgang Bosback, a senior CDU member well known for his temper. A fellow parliamentarian, Jens Spahn, complained that two more issues -- pension reform and minimum wage -- could soon give the SPD even more opportunity to take center stage. "The only thing missing is if the German European Commission representative were to come from their party," Spahn says, referring to demands that SPD member Martin Schulz, outgoing president of European Parliament, become a member of the Commission. "If Schulz becomes commissioner, it would contradict two election results -- those in Germany and those in Europe."

The fight over who will become the next Commission president has reached Berlin. And that means that an issue that was already one of the most complicated that Merkel has ever faced has become even more so. The number of contradictory interests is unusually large. She wants to keep Britain in the European Union, she doesn't want to antagonize the SPD, she doesn't want to anger people within her own party and she doesn't want to be seen as the one who ignored the election result and prevented election victor Jean-Claude Juncker from taking what many see as his rightful position as Commission president. Economists call such a situation "lose-lose." Novelist Joseph Heller called it a "catch-22." For Merkel, it is a serious political problem.

During the depth of the euro crisis, Merkel was able to rely on the SPD. But this time, she can't. The SPD, together with other Social Democratic parties in Europe, are intent on installing their lead candidate Schulz as deputy head of the Commission, meaning he would have to become Germany's representative on the EU's executive body. Juncker, who needs SPD support in European Parliament to become Commission president, has agreed to the move. Should Merkel decline to support Schulz as Germany's Commission representative, the SPD would withdraw its support for Juncker and the entire deal would fall apart.