Die Kanzlerin lies at the heart of Blair's positive legacy in Europe

Tony Blair will spend much of today in the company of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, at the European Council in Brussels. Although the Blair premiership is drawing to a close, the rapport between these two repays study. For the last decade, Mr Blair has had volatile relations with a string of European leaders - most notably Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schr枚der. By contrast, few of his European relationships have looked as close - or as productive - as the one with Die Kanzlerin. 字串4

There are three reasons why the Blair-Merkel rapport has become important to both. First, Ms Merkel has adopted much of Britain's climate change agenda for her presidencies of the G8 and European Union. She is pushing for big cuts in EU carbon emissions at today's summit. Like Mr Blair, she is focused on securing agreement on world trade and the Middle East. "She sees the world pretty much the way he does," says a Blair aide.