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| Europe |
| EU leaders face showdown over treaty change |
| 2010-10-29 |
| [Arab News] European Union heavyweights Germany and France launched their bid on Thursday to convince the rest of the EU that the bloc's main treaty must be changed to help avert new financial crises. The Franco-German plan, which proposes changing the Lisbon treaty to create a permanent system for handling meltdowns like the Greek debt collapse, faces strong opposition from many EU member states at a two-day summit in Brussels. The summit is expected to sign off on a new set of EU budget rules, including tougher sanctions on member states that fail to keep their deficits and debt levels in check. But the meeting is likely to focus on treaty change, which many countries are reluctant to support because of concern about the political fallout from amending a charter that took eight years to negotiate and became law only 10 months ago. In a sign that momentum toward change may be growing, Finnish Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi issued a statement before the summit backing the move -- which Finland had suggested earlier this week it opposed. "The euro area needs a credible permanent crisis mechanism to ensure the financial stability of the euro area as a whole," she said. "If this new system requires treaty change, then treaty change should be done." Speaking in Berlin before the summit, France's European affairs minister, Pierre Lellouche, said countries were warming to the Franco-German position, which he called a gift to Europe. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 The EU is made up of a web of treaties, starting back in the 1950s as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) with six members (France, Germany, Italy, and Benelux). Now there are 27 EU member states, but only 16 of them are members of EMU ("Eurozone" countries that have adopted the euro currency). EMU is a separate treaty that got underway in the 1990s. EMU does indeed require prospective members to meet certain debt and deficit ratios - to JOIN. Not so much to stay in. As far as I am aware, there is no enforcement mechanism with any teeth. Obviously, or they wouldn't be in the mess they're in. A wise Rantburger once remarked that monetary union without fiscal union is pure folly - which is exactly what EMU is. I explained it to my mom like this: hard-working man has a credit card. He gets married and gives a second one to his wife. Now they share the same currency (monetary union). He counseled her to only use it when she needs to, but they think of "need" very differently. So they have no meaningful agreement on when she can use it (no fiscal union). She charges it up to the limit, because she "needed" stuff. He gets the bill, damn near has a heart attack, and a BIG fight ensues. That's pretty much where the Eurozone is right now. Who'd want to get in the middle of that shit? That's why I think it's more likely to see defections back to national currencies, rather than any more non-euro countries signing up. |
| Posted by: RandomJD 2010-10-29 15:39 |
| #3 If I am not mistaken, doesn't the EU members have to abide by certain national debt ratios, etc etc to stay in the EU? Like, be fiscally responsible? Greece was irresponsible, and didn't Italy have these issues in the past? And nothing is done about it. Sooo, the EU members enable this behavior. It will get them in the end. You cannot bail out everybody and survive for long. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-10-29 14:24 |
| #2 Give them a copy of "The Great Deception" by Christopher Booker and Richard North. I assigned a chapter or two as required reading in a seminar on the EU I used to teach. The untoward has already happened. They will be disappointed to learn that even Thatcher had a soft spot for "Europe," at the expense of British sovereignty. I'd imagine by now that she regards it as her greatest mistake. BTW, there is already a European Central Bank (ECB), HQed in Frankfurt. Created along with EMU (European Monetary Union) over a decade ago to manage the Euro. Doubtful that any non-EMU country can/will be forced to adopt the Euro. IMHO, the momentum may well be headed the other way (a return to national currencies). |
| Posted by: RandomJD 2010-10-29 13:45 |
| #1 I read this to two UK friends that are visiting. I love them dearly but their sense of denial is mind boggling. As far as they are concerned the EU has nothing to do with laws or politics in the UK and the conservative (sick) gov't would not allow anything untoward to happen. It's sad that the UK is so blinded to the almost total lack of sovereignty they now "enjoy". They don't even realize what has happened. =============================================== I'm expecting that this incorrectly labled summit will start down the road to a single EU central bank and eventually forcing the hold outs to adopt the euro. |
| Posted by: Alan Cramer 2010-10-29 10:40 |