Angela Merkel to give symbolic address to UK Parliament
Angela Merkel is widely regarded as Europe's most powerful leader German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to address both Houses of Parliament and have tea with The Queen during a symbolic one-day visit to the UK.
Mrs Merkel will follow in the footsteps of other leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, in addressing MPs and peers.
She will later hold talks with the three main party leaders, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband.
Her support is seen as crucial to the success of Mr Cameron's European aims.
The prime minister has said that if the Conservatives win the 2015 election, he will seek to renegotiate the terms of the UK's membership of the European Union and put the outcome to an in-out referendum of the British people in 2017.
The Guardian reported on Wednesday that Berlin was prepared to offer "limited opt-outs" to the UK over its future compliance with existing EU directives and to make sure some other regulations were more flexibly enforced.
'Admiration'The newspaper said it was a sign of the lengths that Germany was willing to go to ensure the UK remained a member of the EU amid fears in Europe that a referendum could lead to British withdrawal.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Cameron said he had "enormous admiration" for Germany's first female leader, who has won three election victories starting in 2005.
Although not an official state visit - Mrs Merkel is not head of state - the trip has been planned for months, with both governments aware of its political significance at a time of looming change in Europe.
David Cameron has spoken of his enormous admiration for Angela Merkel Mrs Merkel is expected to speak for half an hour, in German, in front of an invited audience of dignitaries in the Palace of Westminster, including MPs, peers, diplomats, business and cultural leaders.
Leaders previously accorded the honour of addressing both House of Parliament include French Presidents Charles de Gaulle, Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Francois Mitterand, US Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the Tibetan opposition leader the Dalai Lama, Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi and former Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
Mrs Merkel's predecessor, Willy Brandt, addressed both chambers in 1970.
After Thursday's address, the German chancellor will meet a delegation of MPs and peers before holding a working lunch with the prime minister at Downing Street.
The two centre-right leaders, both of whom govern in a coalition with other parties, will hold a press conference in which Mrs Merkel is likely to be pressed on whether she will support the UK's call for future treaty change in the EU.
Treaty changeThe Conservatives regard treaty change as a vital mechanism to securing the UK's national interest in Europe.
They want the repatriation of powers in areas such as social policy and immigration, and safeguards over the workings of the single market in the event of closer fiscal integration in the eurozone, of which the UK is not a member.
Last month, on a visit to the UK, French President Francois Hollande said re-opening EU treaties - a process in which the UK would have a veto - was "not a priority" and Europe must focus on its pressing economic challenges.
Mr Cameron is seen as having a warmer relationship with Mrs Merkel than their French counterpart, although Berlin was angered by his decision to veto a fiscal compact in December 2011 in response to the eurozone debt crisis.
The prime minister and his wife Samantha visited the German chancellor's country residence last April, following on from a similar visit made by Mrs Merkel and her husband to Chequers in 2010.
Mr Clegg and Mr Miliband, who oppose calls for a referendum and who have warned that Conservative calls for a root-and-branch re-negotiation will alienate EU leaders, will hold separate meetings with Mrs Merkel.
The German chancellor will round off the day by having tea at Buckingham Palace.
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