Friday, June 17, 2005

EU summit, and euro-sense, or the lack of it

In an article that suggests this weeks summit of EU leaders is a “censorship summit” the Financial Times explains how Leaders turn blind eye at crisis summit. Sounds like business as usual to me! The report notes that -

.... before long the EU will have to deal with the real issue of what to do after the referendums. Popular demands for a debate on the EU's future will prove irresistible, not to say unmanageable.
I cannot agree more – the debate is long overdue as is the need for some definition of the “European Project”, and its objectives.

PS. The FT also has a report that claims the ECB fears the euro has hurt growth What is clear is that it isn't the euro itself, but the failure of eurozone member states to embrace, and carry out, structural reform that is holding back growth.

It is ironic that the very same countries that championed the €uro, and proposed the rules to underpin it, are now the ones complaining about "locust capitalism" and calling liberal economics the "new communism". Were they really so stupid that they didn't realise that membership of the eurozone, under the terms they all agreed to, must inevitably mean structural reform? Evidently the answer is yes! .... but then common sense amongst Europe's political elite is clearly not common enough these days.