Labeled as "Miss World" by diplomatic circles, because of her extraordinary negotiating skills, Merkel had almost lost hope of reaching an agreement at the Brussels summit on the question of a new "reform treaty" to salvage the 27-member alliance from the state of perpetual stagnation that enveloped it after the Netherlands and France said "no" to the European constitution in 2005.

"In the G8, and in the European Union, you cannot achieve anything on your own, if others don't believe that the time is right to reach certain decisions. Without that, you are lost. But that was never the case, and that was the most important experience for me," Merkel divulged after the historic Brussels summit that once again spurred the European Union to resume its journey towards a politically and economically united Europe.

Prior to the summit, which also denoted the culmination of Merkel's six-month-presidency of the EU, the atmosphere was extremely gloomy for any rapprochement among the major members of the EU -- particularly a group of hard-line states like Britain, the Netherlands, the Czech republic and Poland -- on the matter of how to overhaul and run the EU in the coming days.

Just days before the summit, Merkel practically abandoned the hope of a positive outcome. "A solution is still not in view," said Chancellor Merkel in her speech to the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament, one week ahead of the crunch summit in Brussels. A bad-tempered European summit was facing a near-collapse because of Polish resistance to a German blueprint on how to run the European Union.

Poland, the biggest of the central European member states, with a population of 38 million, displayed strong reservations about revising EU voting mechanisms. Poland showed its concerns over the plans to reform the way that EU member states vote on decisions that might affect the whole alliance -- fearing the erosion of its influence as a big player owing to its demographic numbers.

Poland demanded that the voting system be based on the square root of the number, in millions, of the population of each state. Poland's resistance was so stiff -- and there was clear evidence that the Polish leadership was bent upon denying Merkel the chance of ending her EU presidency on a triumphant note -- that other influential European leaders had to step in to put pressure on it to agree on some sort of compromise.

Alleging that Germany was treating its eastern neighbour neo-colonially, and refusing to accept is as European partner, Poland went full throttle to wreck the deal on the reform treaty. Despite hectic diplomatic parleys among the major EU members, Poland stood alone at the summit to challenge and block the perceived German success. So much so that, in the run up to the summit, Polish Premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski stunned his European colleagues by demanding compensation for Polish suffering in World War Two.

The Polish argument was that, had it not been for the Nazi occupation and the murder of six million Poles, Poland would have been much bigger, and more powerful in the EU. It was a really testing time for Merkel, who was desperate to break Polish opposition to the reform treaty which, it complained, would curtail Warsaw's voting power and give more say to big members, particularly Germany.

The matter had reached a deadlock when Chancellor Merkel showed her trump card by threatening to launch treaty negotiations without Warsaw's involvement -- prompting a final dash for compromise, albeit in lieu of certain heavy discounts for Poland. This was certainly the most important diplomatic success for Merkel, to win the nod of approval for the start of negotiations on the reform treaty, which is expected to revitalize the bloc.

On the domestic front, she has already proven to be a very effective manager, bringing about robust economic growth and political stability despite sitting on the shoulders of an ostensibly fragile coalition. Now, with the success of the Brussels summit, Merkel is in a much better position to assume the much-desired lead role in the European Union.

Dr. Imran Khalid is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.