Europhiles have made the hard decisions on Greece far harder

by John Dizard

Financial Times
July 3, 2011

A revenge fantasy invented by the most Europhobic UK Conservative MP could not equal the damage done to the European Union’s reputation by its leadership during the Greek crisis.

For years the idea has been floated – earnestly in Europhile circles, fearfully among nationalists – that the contradictions of a monetary area without fiscal union would lead to a “beneficial crisis”. Beneficial, because it would become clear to all, or at least enough of all, that true union, beginning with a single European finance ministry, was the path to stability and prosperity.

Well, maybe, if the collective wisdom of the European leadership had displayed a transcending vision, implemented with efficient execution.

Instead, the record of the euro area’s leadership is a sort of anti-Scout Manual of agreements to play with matches in a dry forest and tease nursing bears.

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