Merkel: EU can be headed by non-eurozone politician

German chancellor praises leader of non-eurozone Denmark, but says her comment has “nothing to do with Denmark in particular”.

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said that the next president of the European Council does not need to come from a country that belongs to the eurozone.

“In principle, it can’t be the case, in the sense of the unity of the European Union, that only someone who is in the eurozone can be Council president. There is no such rule,” Merkel said.

Merkel made her comment when asked whether she could imagine Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s prime minister, as president of the Council, the EU institution in which leaders of the EU’s 28 member states meet. Merkel also described Thorning-Schmidt as a “great prime minister”.

Merkel, who was speaking after meeting Thorning-Schmidt in Berlin, said her comment was “just a general statement” and had “nothing to do with Denmark in particular”.

Eighteen of the EU’s 28 member states have adopted the euro as their currency. Lithuania will join the eurozone next year. Its president, Dalia Grybauskaitė, is also talked of as a possible leader of the European Council.

Thorning-Schmidt is also viewed as a contender for the post of president of the European Commission, the body responsible for drafting and implementing EU legislation and for running most of the EU’s activities.

The Danish prime minister, who took up office in October 2011, is a centre-left politician, but is viewed as a potentially acceptable compromise for the United Kingdom, whose right-of-centre coalition government opposes the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker, a former centre-right prime minister of Luxembourg, for the post of Commission president.

The EU’s national leaders are expected to name their choice for the Commission’s presidency when they meet in Brussels next week (26-27 June).

Merkel reiterated that Juncker is the nominee for the Commission presidency put forward by her Christian Democratic Union and other members of the family of national conservative parties grouped in the European People’s Party.

Merkel said that she would talk “very constructively” about issues that are important to the British government.

“That doesn’t mean we can fulfil every single wish; it means that we can think about what is important for Britain,” she said.

The German chancellor stressed, as she has before, that debate about the direction of Europe should be the principal concern.

“I think the most important thing now is, quite seriously, that you should focus on what we do together in the next five years and that’s more important than who will lead any of the institutions.”

Asked if she would say ‘No’ to a top post in the EU, Thorning-Schmidt said: “I have said many times before: I am the prime minister of Denmark.”