This is Paul Adamson and I'm in conversation with Stephen Fiddler.

Stephen Fiddler is the Brussels Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal.

Steve, we're coming close to the end of 2015 now.

What are the main political highlights, if you like, of the past year that have struck you the most?

Well, I don't know that there were many highlights. I would say this is the year of the migration and the refugee crisis has arrived on the agenda.

No one can say that the Europeans have caused the crisis,

but the way that it's been dealt with,

I don't think, has instilled a lot of confidence

across the block.

I think there's an element of

incoherence in some of the early actions in particular.

And a number of people have said to me that this is a year in which they feel that the Germans in particular,

and Angela Merkel in particular, has lost influence, lost her ability to influence other countries,

other governments in Europe.

And that's in contrast with the last major crisis, the Euro crisis, in which the Germans were

really in the lead.

And not everybody appreciated the policy that they brought to the table.

Not everybody thought that they had handled it particularly

well, but there was no question who was leading it. And I think now we're looking at the

migration crisis and she in particular has a problem of persuading Eastern Europeans to go along with her way of resolving it.

So if Germany is losing its traditional leadership role,

the Angela Merkel in particular,

...