As Merkel announces that Cyprus is too small to be worth bailing out in an election year, thereby driving a coach and horses through the EU’s bank deposit protection scheme, it’s time to bring this one back. Are we about to see Germany wreck Europe for the third time in 100 years?
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| 1914 | 1939 | 2013? |
This is a revised version of this previous post.and this one.
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Yesterday was very odd. I kept seeing and hearing the same thing twice. In the UK, when the economy should have been the priority, a strongly nationalist government was being coerced by a weird party of political teenagers that wants to make the country independent of the EU in order to build Little England. The Labour Party was dithering partly because it fears being on the wrong side of popular opinion, partly because of internal division and partly because it has a very dubious track record on the issue. There is a principled small centre party that is clearly in favour of the Union but its voice goes largely unheard amid the clamour of the media that follows the nationalist line of its owners.
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Meanwhile in Catalonia, when the economy should have been the priority, a strongly nationalist government was being coerced by a weird party of political teenagers that wants to make the country independent of Spain, and thereby of the EU, in order to build Cuba on the Med. The Socialist Party was dithering partly because it fears being on the wrong side of popular opinion, partly because of internal division and partly because it has a very dubious track record on the issue. There is a small principled centre party that is clearly in favour of the Union but its voice goes largely unheard amid the clamour of the media that follows the nationalist line of its government paymasters.
Catalonia is setting out on a magical mystery tour with two drivers steering in different directions. The one heading to the right thinks he’s Moses and the one heading left imagines he’s Fidel Castro. This curious arrangement was set up by 71 of the 135 vehicle mechanics; the fact that the mechanics who check the vehicles are in the pay of the drivers provides all sorts of benefits in certain circles, though sadly the archives of the bus’s music system have been sold off.
Of the hundred passengers on board only 44 actually bought tickets for the journey with these drivers; the rest are just being carried along. The destination of this excursion lies outside the EU but few of the passengers know this so hardly anyone has brought a passport. Indeed, it is not certain whether the drivers know this themselves but whether they do or they don’t, it doesn’t make any difference because they have already said that they will just crash the bus through any barrier that they may meet. The back right wheel of the bus is wobbling badly and may very well come adrift. That could cause a bad smash of course but if it happens before the bus drives out of the EU it could prove to be a blessing in disguise.
The British media are known for their support of anything that leads to instability in Europe (here for an egregious BBC example). In an interesting piece of toadying the Guardian reports on Artur Mas’s recent visit to Brussels.
Catalonia’s regional leader sought to call the European Union’s bluff on Wednesday over a rising tide of national fragmentation and secessionism within the EU, demanding to know what Brussels will do if some of the union’s member states splinter for the first time in EU history.
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He came to Brussels to try to sway minds on Catalan secessionism and to demand answers to the pressing questions being thrown up by the prospect of the emergence of new states within the EU.
True as far as it goes I suppose – that was what he intended to do – but there are some serious omissions in the article. For example, contrary to the impression that Traynor gives Mas didn’t meet a single EU official while he was in Brussels – and that was an even worse outcome than on his recent (and very expensive) trip to Moscow, where he did get a short time with a junior minister of culture.
The author of the Guardian’s piece was presumably at the same press conference as Teresa Küchler, the Swedish correspondent from Svenska Dagbladet, who said that he was being “intellectually dishonest” by asking voters, if he gets to hold a referendum, whether they want an independent state within the European Union. She also pointed out that other countries as well as Spain would probably consider vetoing any independent Catalonia and she doubted whether Catalonia had enough money to set up the institutions that would be needed to join the EU.
Then Scottish socialist MEP David Martin, pointed out “contradictions” in Mas’s speech, for example “when he refuses to share his resources with Spain but says he is happy to share those resources with the rest of the EU”. “I understand that you prefer to ask in the referendum if people want an independent Catalonia in the EU, but that isn’t up to you,” Martin warned him.
(Based on Yahoo! News in Spanish)
There is a serious discussion of how independence for Catalonia or Scotland would affect their EU membership on Brian Barder’s Ephem’s blog. It seems quite clear that a territory that secedes from an existing member state would be treated as a non-member of the EU and would have to apply for new membership.
The German Finance Ministry says it will not allow the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to have a banking licence, which would allow it to be funded directly from the ECB.
Reflation in Germany is necessary but the country is obsessed with remembering the hyperinflation of 1923 and has forgotten what happened in 1933 (the end of democracy) even though the spivs are at the gates.
Are we about to see Germany wreck Europe for the third time in 100 years?
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| 1914 | 1939 | 2012? |
This is a revised version of a previous post.
‘Not as long as I live.’ Angela Merkel on eurobonds.
Are we about to see Germany wreck Europe for the third time in 100 years?
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| 1914 | 1939 | 2012? |
If the tsunami strikes, we’ll all know who to blame for not setting up the defences in time.
Even the Economist has managed, finally, to work that one out.
Spot the difference.
UK News
The UK's hopes of economic recovery are being "killed off" by the eurozone crisis, the chancellor says, as Spain requests a eurozone loan for its banks.
Europe News
Spain's decision to request a eurozone loan of up to 100bn euros to help its struggling banking system wins broad international support.
And a little later on the main and Europe news pages
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy says a decision by eurozone ministers to help Spain shore up its struggling banks is a "victory for the euro".
with no change on the UK page.
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