debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
The eurozone crisis is one of the most significant challenges EU policymakers have yet faced. Waltraud Schelkle examines Germany’s reaction to the crisis, finding that while Germany proposed economic self-restraint in 2008, it also embarked on a policy of domestic fiscal stimulus to the welfare system and car industry that amounted to 3 per cent of GDP. [...]
Ireland’s debate on the fiscal compact treaty is being filled out by wider movements in European politics which give it heightened salience and topicality. Whichever side can best claim ownership of these movements is likely to win the referendum campaign. The French presidential election and the Dutch political crisis joined last week to put popular [...]
For those who have watched the Greek people humiliated by the troika’s ever more strident calls for austerity, it is easy to despair about ever seeing any real political change in a Merkozy-dominated Eurozone. But things may soon improve. Consider the following points. First, Europeans are beginning to wake up to the reality of ‘austerity’ [...]
Angela Merkel’s announcement that she will actively support Nicolas Sarkozy in the upcoming French presidential elections came as a surprise to many. And although I have not been a staunch supporter of Merkel’s European policy, I am convinced that she is doing the right thing. But I was also irritated that many Germans felt alienated and spoke [...]
Angela Merkel has made her choice: “I support Nicolas Sarkozy on all fronts,” she told reporters in Paris. This is not surprising. It is “perfectly natural” to support fellow conservatives, she explained. Yet, this alliance is dressed in historic terms: “It’s about the big responsibility we have, the construction of Europe. We are surrounded by [...]
As part of ECFR’s ‘Reinvention of Europe’ project, we are running a series of responses from leading thinkers and academics to Mark Leonard’s recent paper,‘Four scenarios for the reinvention of Europe’. The paper outlined four possible routes towards solving Europe’s current crisis, and argued that Europe’s main challenge was to solve the acute euro crisis without exacerbating [...]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel should be happy nowadays: her party’s approval ratings aren’t bad, and her own are very good. She no longer has serious rivals within the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), while the left opposition is fragmented into four parties. Her response to the European crisis has prevailed – or at least that [...]
It is not easy to detect where the euro debate stands after coming back from a holiday in India. In fact the euro crisis was hardly mentioned in the The Hindu, one of the most important Indian newspapers. However, I think there is a tangible game change happening this year. Still, we are faced with many [...]
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 [...]
It is now increasingly clear that what started in late 2008 is no ordinary economic slump. Almost four years after the beginning of the crisis, developed economies have not managed a sustainable recovery, and even the better-off countries reveal signs of weakness. Faced with the certainty of a double-dip recession, Europe’s difficulties are daunting. Not [...]
Irish democracy may become Europe’s focus in 2012, if the Merkel-Sarkozy ‘stability and growth union’ proposals are put to a vote of the Irish people. Any change to the Constitution of Ireland requires a referendum. The Irish Attorney General will examine the final wording of the fiscal compact in March before advising whether these proposals [...]
For two years now, one European summit after another has ended with assurances that – at long last – the necessary measures for containing the eurozone’s sovereign-debt crisis have been taken. Most were publicly portrayed as breakthroughs, though they were nothing of the sort. As a rule, it took about three days before markets caught [...]
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