EU summit gives Merkel big sendoff even if she might return

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Angela Merkel is still German Chancellor and might be still when the EU leaders meet again, yet they gave her a farewell party at Friday’s EU summit. Attending her 107th summit, she was feted by friend and foe alike in an informal ceremony behind closed doors, where they called her anything from a “compromise machine” to the EU’s Eiffel Tower. Merkel has been the embodiment of the drive for a stronger united Europe for years since she attended her first meeting of EU leaders 16 years ago, at a time when Jacques Chirac was French president and Tony Blair British prime minister.