New York Times
June 7, 2012
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, with the euro under renewed pressure from Spanish banks and the coming Greek election, said on Thursday that the answer is “more Europe,” with moves “step by step” toward a fiscal and political union of countries using the euro.
But how much more Europe does Europe want?
As much as greater integration may be the ultimate answer for the structural flaws in the euro zone, it is not a given. The issue was brought into sharp relief this week when Spanish officials rejected any hint of intrusion by Europe into their budgetary powers in exchange for helping the country’s banks.
Further union implies more sacrifice of national sovereignty than leaders of many countries want — let alone their voters, who have an increasingly low opinion in general of “Brussels” and of its largely faceless and unelected technocrats.
The concern over sovereignty extends to countries outside the euro zone, like Prime Minister David Cameron’s euro-phobic Britain. But perhaps the most important country after Germany in all this is France, a presidential republic with strong central authority. How it comes down on the question may ultimately prove decisive.
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