GERMANY BLASTS EUROPE 2020'.

• Position: Brief article

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has hit out at the Commission's Europe 2020' plan to revive the bloc's flagging economy. On 3 March, the Commission proposed five growth targets for EU countries to meet in the next ten years, but in a letter to the bloc's three presidents - Barroso, Van Rompuy and Zapatero - Merkel said she may not be able to sign up to them as planned in March. "In no way can the government commit the German parliament and Lander [state parliaments] to EU-level targets that were not previously discussed and agreed with them," she wrote in the letter, dated 25 February. She will only agree to the targets - on employment, research spending, education, climate and poverty reduction - if they are...