Sunshine Between Berlin and London?
For all those who had doubts after the BBC’s James Coomarasamy put him to the test last September: Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle actually does speak English.
And he proved a sense of humour when the new British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Foreign Secretary William Hague came on their first visit to Berlin this week.
In the press conference following the meeting on 10 June 2010, the LibDem leader Nick Clegg surprised journalists with his fluent German, raving about the “Berliner Luft” (”Berlin air”).
“I’d like the English journalists to know … his German is excellent”, Foreign Minister Westerwelle commented, the Guardian newspaper reported, perhaps alluding to the generally poor language abilities of English journalists, and to Coomarasamy insisting on framing his questions in English in the press conference in Berlin last year.
Westerwelle welcomed the UK visitors as “closest friends” and “fabulous partners”. Prime Minister David Cameron had already visited Chancellor Merkel on one of his first visits abroad in May 2010.
However, with tough decisions looming in order to help the EU countries deal with the economic and financial crisis and the turmoil in the eurozone, there is a lot of potential for frictions between Berlin and London. Even though the UK is not a member of the eurozone, the reform measures are likely to have an impact in the UK too.
The new coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in London has already pointed out clearly that it will not accept a stronger role of the European Union in the surveillance of national budgets. Also, restricting the room for maneouver of hedge funds is a point of controversy.
William Hague has made the British position clear in one of his first major speeches. His German partners are perhaps not amused.
Read the address of Foreign Secretary Hague to the House of Commons on 3 June 2010.