Jean-Claude Juncker announced that he wanted to overturn the time change in the EU between winter and summer time.
Speaking in the Nigerian capital of Abuja about an online survey by the European Commission on the proposal, Mrs Merkel spoke in favour of the EU time proposal.
The German Chancellor said: “I am pleased if the EU Commission takes this vote seriously. If you’ve done it that way, then something should also follow it.
“Personally, I would give it a very high priority.”
She added, jokingly, that she did not know whether Nigeria was aware of the “central problem people in Europe have”.
The overwhelming majority of citizens in the EU voted in favour of stopping the changeover in time.
But a legislative proposal of the authority would still have to be approved by the EU parliament and member states.
Referring to the ongoing Commission meeting, Mr Juncker said: “We will decide today.
“This is what the people want, this is what we’ll do.”
Three million of the 4.6million responses were said to have come from Germany.
But people from all 28 member states participated.
The majority wanted summer time throughout the year.
But despite the UK’s imminent departure from the EU, it could still potentially adopt the proposed policy.
Switzerland, a non-EU country, adopted summertime in 1981 to prevent being a “time island”.
But if time change were abolished, then the law would automatically apply to Switzerland, said the head of the Swiss Institute for Metrology, Jürg Niederhauser.
Differing in time regulation of neighbouring states would bring significant disadvantages for the economy, the Federal Council wrote in early February 2017.
(Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.)