debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
The eurozone crisis has made reforming the EU’s institutional framework an urgent priority. Based on a recent speech to the Federal Trust, Andrew Duff MEP argues that without revision of the EU’s treaties to create a fiscal union, the EU’s very survival is now in jeopardy. He advocates the merging of the two EU treaties into one [...]
Will the eurozone crisis end in 2013, or will it drag on throughout the year, and perhaps even deteriorate anew? This is likely to be not only the crucial question for the European Union’s further development, but also a key issue affecting the performance of the global economy. While the EU clearly needs internal reforms, [...]
Europe’s leaders, unlike former US President George H. W. Bush, have never had trouble with the “vision thing.” They have always known what they want their continent to be. But having a vision is not the same as implementing it. And, when it comes to putting their ideas into practice, the European Union’s leaders have [...]
It is frustrating that there was yet another Council meeting in Brussels and again none of the necessary steps were taken. Angela Merkel basically got what she wanted. Apart from Britain and the Czech Republic everybody looks set to sign up to her fiscal union, which will set in stone a constitutionalised version of the [...]
Al Jazeera International produced a good roundup of the current problems of the Eurozone. I gave my two pennies worth at the end of the report: With the eurozone recession set to get worse, world leaders (…) will have to face a number of challenges. For two years the debt crisis has loomed over Europe. Greece, [...]
Paul Krugman recently penned a 6000 word essay for New York Times Magazine provocatively titled “Can Europe Be Saved?” (January 16, 2011) Coming from anyone else than a Nobel Prize winning economist, such a title questioning the survivability of the largest economy in the world, with more Fortune 500 companies than the United States and [...]
Europe is at the crossroads. Either unity or national populism will determine its future. The new union would start as a community of debt. When Alexandre Dumas published Les Trois Mousquetaires in 1844, Europe was in deep crisis. The conservative attempt to restore old legitimacy had failed and the ancient regimes could no longer guarantee [...]
With relief, Europe has made it to the end of the summer holiday season with the worst of the Greek/eurozone debt crisis behind it. Defying the gloomy headlines, the eurozone did not disintegrate; indeed this crisis, like previous ones, provided a shove toward further economic integration. But much uncertainty remains, primarily because the challenge is [...]
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