When Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]] took power in 2005, the EU as a legislative and executive power was still largely regarded as a pipe-dream and a joke. Merkel said the EU needed to seek "common interests," and not "concentrate too much on whether bicycle paths are built the same way in [[Portugal]] and north-west Germany," which were the pressing societal priorities entrusted to the EU's salaried [[bureaucrat]]s for the previous 50 years. | When Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]] took power in 2005, the EU as a legislative and executive power was still largely regarded as a pipe-dream and a joke. Merkel said the EU needed to seek "common interests," and not "concentrate too much on whether bicycle paths are built the same way in [[Portugal]] and north-west Germany," which were the pressing societal priorities entrusted to the EU's salaried [[bureaucrat]]s for the previous 50 years. |