29/06/2020 (Agence Europe) – With two days to go before the German Presidency of the EU Council takes office, Hans-Gert Pöttering - European Parliament President from 2007 to 2009 and current President of the Association of Former Members of the European Parliament (FMA) - recalled on Monday 29 June the already turbulent context in which Germany, led by Angela Merkel, took over the reins of the Council in 2007. France and the Netherlands had just rejected the European Constitutional Treaty. However, the Berlin Declaration and then the Treaty of Lisbon had given new impetus to European integration. Pöttering therefore expects Angela Merkel, “the most experienced head of government”, to “make a decisive contribution to solving the problems facing” Germany and to focus in particular on reaching a compromise on the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027. (AC)