| ◄ | GERMANY AND THE EURO |
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The recent appearance of a euro sceptic political party “Alternative für Deutschland” (credited with 7% of voter support) advocating the exit of the Euro by Germany should come as no surprise. It fits in perfectly with a general feeling of euro-scepticism that is gradually affecting a growing number of citizens, disillusioned by “Europe’s” apparent failure to find solutions to the crisis. Irreconcilable dichotomy between the aims of the “new” German euro-sceptics and those of their European homonyms is the best proof that managing serenely (and technically) a restructuring of EMU is nigh impossible, whether it takes place in the form of the exit of one or several Members or under the guise of an even more complex alternative aiming at establishing two parallel currency blocs. IS A GERMAN EXIT OF THE EURO CONCEIVABLE? (May/June 2013) In September 2013, Ms. Merkel is expected to win a third term as chancellor. That means her agenda will dominate Europe's crisis response for years. The euro's survival hinges to a considerable extent on whether her strategy works. Her approach is to put the onus on struggling nations to save the euro by cutting their budget deficits, labor costs and welfare. It is a strategy that is as popular in Germany as it is divisive in Europe's weakest countries: MERKEL's BET on the EURO (April 2013) An article April 2013 by George Soros, titled 'GERMANY's CHOICE, A European Solution to the Eurozone's Problem'. The European Union was a bold project that fired many people’s imagination, including mine. I regarded the European Union as the embodiment of an open society – a voluntary association of equal states who surrendered part of their sovereignty for the common good. The European Union had five large and a number of small member states and they all subscribed to the principles of democracy, individual freedom, human rights and the rule of law. No nation or nationality occupied a dominant position. On 1 January 2012 ten years of euro was recalled through German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her speech during an event of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung "Euro - 10 years common currency" in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. She insisted Monday that Europe's debt crisis has shown that the bloc's leaders must now press for a genuine political union: "The debt crisis has exposed the structural flaws of Europe's monetary union and forced leaders into taking unprecedented steps toward a fiscal and a political union, she said. "In my opinion it is the great task of the coming years to move forward on the path of a political union," Merkel said in Berlin. Initiatives like the 17-nation eurozone's new permanent bailout fund, the €500 billion ($650 billion) European Stability Mechanism, would have been inconceivable three years ago, she added. "Now this is our daily bread," the chancellor said. Last year Merkel also led the effort to push for a new European Union treaty to boost fiscal integration across the bloc. The new bailout fund ESM, meanwhile, is supposed to replace the European Financial Stability Facility, the eurozone's current bailout fund this year. The ESM has paid-in capital, similar to a bank and will therefore be less vulnerable to rating downgrades.
Earlier Monday, Merkel said Germany was prepared to speed up its payments to ensure that the eurozone's new financial firewall will be fully operational "as fast as possible." |