Parliament under German spell?[de] 

Graham Watson, the British Liberal MEP, thinks that the European Parliament's two biggest political groups, the conservatives and the socialists, which are both lead by Germans, are under pressure from Berlin. 

According to Watson, this so-called "Berlin blockage" played a big role, for example, in watering down the services directive. 

The British MP argues that Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the EPP, and Martin Schulz, Socialist leader, negotiated private deals that were acceptable to the Merkel's coalition government in Berlin and then tried to impose the compromise on their groups. 

"The danger is that the German coalition makes parliament less bold, particularly in the field of economic reform. In a sense it undermines the credibility of Parliament as the representative voice for Europe's people," Watson told to the Financial Times.