Guardian
September 7, 2011
The financial crisis risks destroying half a century of European integration. It is primarily a political and not an economic crisis, and only a different political solution can solve it. The problem is the intergovernmental system of governance: member states' governments take decisions jointly, but each government pursues its own partial interests. Hence, political integration is the missing complement to an integrated economy. Intergovernmental policy decisions never represent more than the smallest common denominator, and the collective interests of all European citizens are neglected.
Witness the fiscal policy fraud of the Karamanlis government and how it has affected the euro. Witness Merkel's imposition of growth-killing austerity on the rest of Europe. Witness the financial panic after Berlusconi attempted to bribe the voters who are leaving him. In all these cases, and many others, the interests of ordinary citizens are violated under the cover of democracy. For national governments are, by definition, only concerned with the partial interests of their small national constituencies, where they seek to get elected on platforms that have usually little to do with Europe. However, European policies affect all European citizens. They are European public goods. How can citizens be said to "choose" when governments negotiate compromises to which they claim that "there is no alternative"?
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