When Angela Merkel receives the new European Order of Merit in Strasbourg this week, the ceremony will not simply celebrate a former German chancellor.
It will render a broader European judgment about an era — and about the kind of leadership the European Union believes it needs in an age of instability.
The European Parliament says the award honours individuals who made “significant contributions to European integration” and to the defence of “democracy and values.”
Merkel was elevated to the highest category of “Distinguished Member,” alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Lech Wałęsa — a symbolic trio linking democratic resistance, European unity, and political endurance.
That choice says much about how Brussels now interprets Merkel’s legacy.
