Merkel away when crises came calling

Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, an independent research organisation in London, said this partly explained why Mrs Merkel had taken such a very tough stance against bailing out Greece. "Merkel felt that her hands were tied by very real and immediate constraints," Ms Barysch said. "But her cautious and delayed reaction is also in line with a deeper shift in Germany's European policies. In a European Union of 27, Germans no longer automatically assume that their national interest coincides with that of the Union."