EUROPEAN DIARY: Brussels was relieved yesterday at the outcome of Germany's election - not because of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's victory but simply because the election was over.
For months, the EU has tiptoed around big political issues for fear of upsetting first the French and then the German election campaigns.
Now that Europe's biggest countries have chosen their governments, there is a chance that they will tackle their disagreements - particularly over the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. Like most bureaucrats, EU officials are instinctively averse to political change. Apart from anything else, it means getting to know a new set of politicians. If Mr Schröder had lost power on Sunday, however, few tears would have been shed in Brussels.
Unlike his predecessor, Dr Helmut Kohl (who remains a hero in Brussels despite his disgrace at home) Mr Schröder has made no secret of his determination to promote German interests within the EU. Dr Kohl put Germany's interests first too but he concealed this behind a mist of visionary, pro-European rhetoric. Mr Schröder proclaimed the change of style the moment he took office in 1998. "Germany is a grown-up nation that will represent its interests in a more self-confident manner," he said.
During the first half of his term in office, however, the Chancellor appeared to abandon this new assertiveness, to the delight of Germany's EU partners.
During budget negotiations in Berlin in 1999, Mr Schröder agreed to maintain Germany's role as Europe's paymaster - a necessary move to avoid deadlock.
The following year, he unveiled his vision of a "federal Europe" with a "strong Commission" - music to the ears of the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi. For a few months, Mr Prodi believed the German chancellor was truly his best friend in Europe. It was not long before the genial Italian received a rude awakening.
Mr Schröder's frustration with the Commission grew steadily during 2001 and reached boiling point early this year when Brussels threatened to reprimand Germany over its budget deficit.
The Chancellor complained that Brussels was demanding the impossible - that Germany should continue to bear the burden of funding the EU while keeping its own budget in check.
"A cow that gives a lot of milk should be stroked from time to time," he said. Mr Schröder also complained that the Commission had too few German officials in top jobs and that Brussels ignored the effect on industry of some of its proposals.
He accused "the professors" - Mr Prodi, the Competition Commissioner, Mr Mario Monti and the Internal Market Commissioner, Mr Frits Bolkestein, of being too attached to strict, liberal economics to notice the effect of their actions on the real world.
If Mr Schröder's dealings with Brussels have been tense, his relations with other EU leaders have been even worse. Relations between the German Chancellor and the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, have been poor since the Berlin summit in 1999 and they worsened further during the all-night wrangling at Nice in 2000.
Mr Schröder has never got on with the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr José Maria Aznar, while Italy's Mr Silvio Berlusconi and the German Chancellor loathe each other. Alone among the leaders of Europe's big states, Britain's Mr Tony Blair enjoys warm relations with Mr Schröder, despite differences over Iraq and much else.
Mr Chirac sent an effusive message of congratulations to Mr Schröder yesterday and most observers of the Franco-German relationship believe the two men will resolve their differences over agricultural policy before next month's EU summit in Brussels.
The Chancellor's outspoken opposition to US plans for war against Iraq has, in the words of President George W Bush's senior advisers, "poisoned" relations between Berlin and Washington.
The increased strength of the Greens in Germany's new government will make it more difficult for Mr Schroöder to retreat from his policy. Although the Chancellor has ruled out sending German troops to Iraq, even with a UN mandate, he has not suggested that Germany would oppose a new UN resolution against Baghdad.More worrying for European politicians is the fact that Mr Schröder's opposition to war in Iraq is almost certainly one of the reasons he was re-elected on Sunday.
With public opinion throughout Europe firmly opposed to Washington's plans, other EU governments may think twice before they rush their own soldiers into action.