Acting Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference at the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) headquarters in Berlin, Germany, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany needs a stable government as soon as possible in order to respond to proposals for reforming the European Union and to deal with an uncertain global environment, Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference on Monday.

Speaking after a meeting of her Christian Democrat (CDU) party’s leadership, she said she would hold meetings with the Social Democrats (SPD), leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), who have agreed under pressure to enter coalition talks with Merkel’s camp after first refusing to do so.

“There are European elections in 2019 ... so there is a big expectations that we take positions,” she said, referring to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s and French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposals on the future governance of the currency and economic union.

She also mentioned conflict in the Middle East, tensions with Russia and relations with the U.S. as factors that meant Germany needed to be “capable of acting”.