The Times has an article on the massive discontent spreading across Germany in the wake of Chancellor Schroeder’s promises not to raise taxes and fears about European integration.
The EU is based on some fairly good ideas, but the implementation was done in an undemocratic and slapdash way. It’s not surprising that the Germans who never got to vote on the adoption of the Euro are now ready to reject it. Nor will nations like France and Germany be able to maintain their economic health sufficiently to keep within in the limits set by the Maastricht Treaty without jettisoning their expensive social welfare systems.
In the end, either the EU will have to break its own rules, or it will collapse. Either way, the longterm prospects for the EU do not seem to be good. All we need is for the Germans to start looking for scapegoats for their troubles, and the seed of yet another worldwide conflict could be laid.
Via InstaPundit.
You can almost see them swirling around the bowl. Wasn’t it supposed to be a free trade zone? And now they’re inspecting restaurants across the continent to see if they are “Italian” enough to call themselves Italian. Sheesh!
While I agree that the EU is facing some very serious problems, the benefit of a single currency, as I have experienced it and as many of my European freinds and colleagues have told me, is worth fighting for. I think that Glenn is pretty far off base here, or anyone for that matter, in predicting the eminent demise of the EU.
The cheif economist at the investment bank I previously worked for said in 1997 that it would never get this far. Well, it did. And political institutions (especially large bureaucracies) have a way of preserving themselves.
The constraints mandating budgets deficits remain within 3% of GDP or less were designed in a time when Europe was coming out of a recession–and countries like Italy had a deficit of more than 12%. Now that they are mired in a new recession they must make some hard choices. But as I said, the general European populace is very pleased with the Euro, and this in turn will create pressure on the leaders to make significant and smart reforms. Some of which may be a reduction of their welfare systems and a change in their employment policies, but my money would be on the Europeans scrapping the EDI (European Defense Initiative) and other aspects of their militaries. But how much can you cut when you only spend 1.5% of your GDP on armed forces?