He was a passionate European.<br /><br />And after tributes at home in Germany for the country’s longest serving post-war chancellor, Helmut Kohl will be honoured on Saturday with a memorial service at the EU’s Parliament in Strasbourg.<br /><br />Speakers will include German leader Angela Merkel, former US President Bill Clinton and French President Emmanuel Macron.<br /><br />Kohl, who died aged 87, served from 1982 to 1998. The architect of German reunification, he was also a driving force behind the introduction of the euro currency.<br /><br />After the ceremony – the first time the EU has staged such a commemoration – a funeral service will be held in Speyer Cathedral in western Germany, near Kohl’s former home in Ludwigshafen.<br /><br />with Reuters<br />
