“Europe’s plans for banking union are coming unstuck before they’re even agreed, according to the Wall Street Journal this afternoon.”
Why does that not come as a surprise? Possibly because the current German Chancellor gives the impression that all she wants is to cling onto power at any cost and has therefore browbeaten the whole of the European Union to put everything on hold till she clinches the election.
She has also made us feel that she really does not want a banking union at all. And only agreed to discus it to gain time for her own personal benefit. She wants nothing that might compromise Germany’s narrow interests as she and Rossler perceive them. This, however, hardly goes any way to reassuring that Germany’s broader interests will be met, but unfortunately this is the trap Europe is currently caught in. Narrow national self interests that can no longer see the big picture.
There is, however, one voice today that does provide some reassurance. The Finnish PM’s comment over the need for Britain to stay in Europe. The EU without England, he says would be like Fish without the Chips! And he is right. To stay together and constitute a force and a presence on the global scene, the European Union should not be allowed to fall apart. And it’s not just a question of the fish staying with the chips!
However, what we are seeing at the moment are narrow minded centrifugal tendencies. Cameron is playing to the Europhobes, out of fear of the Ukip rise and possible loss of the hard line right of his party. Therefore he plays the populist card of the referendum for Brexit. A game that could possibly get out of hand and cause a big blow to European Unity.
The Frau is so immersed in her tactical maneuvers to ensure her reelection that she cannot see the wood from the trees (if ever she could). She wants to keep taking without ever giving. Her populism will no doubt ensure her reelection, but it will also ensure even worse conditions in the EU with recession spreading to Germany too, and the whole endeavor risks being put in danger through narrow minded self interest.
As to the peripheral states, the inhuman stringent austerity that has been imposed has achieved one major result. The unprecedented and dangerous rise in unemployment. The suffering imposed on the people without any tangible result, that is without any tangible positive results but plenty of negative ones, makes them ripe for populist rhetoric.
The EU is no longer perceived as one entity. It is already at risk of disintegrating into its original parts. Hate and distrust between the peoples’ is rife, as it is being fanned by the above mentioned populists and others. Governments are deaf and blind to what is really going on. Yet the EU is so much greater than the sum of its parts, with the potential to make the difference globally.
It is more than a pity that it is now in the hands of miserable nonentities of low stature who cannot see further than their individual noses.
It appears that after the 2014 European Parliamentary Elections, the next President of the Commission will be elected by the European Parliament, and not appointed by the powers that be, who prefer nonentities for obvious self serving reasons.
This is indeed a step in the right direction. However, will it be enough and will it be in time to keep the European project going?