Financial Times
December 7, 2011
When the leaders of the European Union meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, facing a full-scale financial crisis in the eurozone, they know this will be no ordinary summit.
It is too late for another round of sticking plaster to stop the crisis. Thanks above all to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, they are being forced to decide – very fast – about fundamental reforms in the way Europe works.
Ms Merkel believes that the only way to restore confidence in the markets is to complete the process of economic and monetary union that was launched 20 years ago with the Maastricht treaty. She calls it “a big step towards fiscal union”.
For the 17 members of the eurozone, that means giving up a big chunk of national sovereignty. The discussions about doing so have exposed fundamental fault-lines that have been papered over for years.
The first is the tension between “solidarity” and “discipline” – a dividing line between the net budget contributors of northern Europe and the net recipients of the south and east. It is not just cash, but an economic mindset, that divides them.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment