A next EU-summit is on its way and once more everyone is looking at Germany. Different EU-Member States have different opinions of German European policy and have different expectations towards Berlin.

Opinions from around 15 countries are presented in the newest EPIN’s publication: “Germany as Viewed by Other EU Member States“. Dr Agnieszka Łada, the Head of the European Programme at the IPA describes the Polish assessment of the German politics.
Germany’s problem is not so much that it is generally right about the need for fiscal discipline but that it has to learn how to be right: this is the most difficult issue to manage from a political standpoint.
This EPIN (European Policy Institutes Network) paper brings together contributions from a cross-section of EU member states and the Gallup World Poll survey on the question of how Germany is being viewed at this time of economic and political crisis.
The conclusions, subtitled: The Narcissism of Small Differences is a refreshingly candid and insightful analysis of current European relations, noting that Germany’s current weight reflects only the conjuncture of extraordinary domestic and international economic factors. How Germany and the other member states behave towards one another now will have implications for all long after this moment has passed.
EPIN is a Network of leading European think tanks dealing with the EU institutions.  

The publication is available here http://www.ceps.eu/book/germany-viewed-other-eu-member-states

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