Unity of focus and purpose is essential

WHEN she addressed the Bundestag yesterday morning, German chancellor Angela Merkel could have been Taoiseach Enda Kenny speaking to the Dáil.

Obviously the resources available to each leader are on a very different scale but the message was almost indistinguishable — batten down the hatches, we’re in for a long and stormy passage before we even sight dry land. We may even be in for a long and stormy passage before we can agree the best course to dry land.

Ms Merkel said there was no easy fix to Europe’s difficulties — more than 30 years in the making — and that resolving it will “take years”.