At the beginning, in the European Coal and Steel Community, the idea of the Single Market was obviously a catalyst of the integration process. This was the platform where the first circle of the integrating countries found mutually beneficial to integrate some of their industries and powers. The big trial was exceptionally successful and the countries of the enlarging union found more and more territories where integration, cooperation and free liberalized markets contribute and facilitate their competitiveness and growth. We know that human being is like that: if two parties (or even former enemies) find a good platform which provides mutual advantages then cooperation and friendship starts very fast even between formerly opposition thinking people and countries. So may be this was the most important driving power of the integration.

But even after 20 successful year here are still many barriers to a fully functioning Single Market. What still needs to be done to make the Single Market fully operational? Naturally to sort out problems which citizens and businesses face in the Single Market. But it is still not so simple as EU is still not one country and does not speak one voice.

After the new Single Market Act (13 April 2011) has been applied and various additional proposals in relation to that will be finally adopted and implemented, as per the expectations and promises the more than 21 million businesses and 500 millions consumers in Europe will benefit more from a better functioning Single Market for venture capital, simpler accounting requirements and cheaper access to patent protection across Europe. It will be easier for citizens to get their qualifications recognised and seek a job in another Member State. It will also be easier for goods to circulate and service providers to operate cross-border, thanks to new standardisation and actions aimed at removing persistent and unjustified restrictions to the provision of services. We will finally be able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Digital Single Market and a boost in e-commerce also.

Sources: Making the Single Market work better: boosting Europe’s potential for growth
Single Market Act: Together for new growth

About the current socio economical problems:

As Jean Monnet told once: “European Integration will be forced and contributed in crises.” Today’s we are living in a decade of a very complex and deep social and economical crisis and recession. Seems to be that after the lot of efforts and mutually advantageous cooperation platforms we still can not step to the path of the future of prosperity. Socially, industrially, monetarily we know and feel these problems. The leaders of the EU percept the importance of these problems and trying to reply for this challenges.

Emerging stronger from the crisis: the European vision

Video orig. source:  http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I074443&sitelang=en

EU Commission’s today’s priorities ad replies to the recession are the followings: Europe 2020 Europe’s grow strategy, Economic Governance: “The crisis exposed fundamental problems and unsustainable trends in many European countries. It also made clear just how interdependent the EU’s economies are. Greater economic policy coordination across the EU will help us to address these problems and boost growth and job creation in future.” Which contains several known sub programs like: The European Semester the Stability and Growth Pact, Addressing macro-economic imbalances, The Euro Plus Pact and Repairing the financial sector.

Source: Europe2020, Prioritiesof the Eeconomic-Governance

Source: The Economist, European Commission

Market and people lost a bit their confidence in each others and in the cooperation. Something is poisoning our life. Interdependency is forcing us. We are sitting in one ship and we are much over of the point of no return. If one fail all the others feel it. Therefore EU thinks the solution is the closer, stronger, more deep financial union and stronger integration which was also helpful before in other hard times. EU thinks a banking union and a closer fiscal union might also help to solve the problems. But this is a very sensitive territory of the cooperation.

Source: The Economist, Eurostat *: 15-24 year olds

About the transport systems:

Connecting Europe – Vision of an interconnected Europe

Video: http://ec.europa.eu/news/transport/110328_en.htm

EU thinks a smart, sustainable and interconnected transport, energy and digital networks are priorities for Europe’s economic future. Plans for more efficient transport would connect Europe’s road, rail, air and water networks, cut dependence on oil imports and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. EU decided to work out new founding system and invest €50bn in infrastructure – connecting Europe, boosting competitiveness and creating jobs.

Source: ec.europa.eu/news/energy

Yes, the future is the mobility and those smart mobility which is environmental friend, cost efficient and suitable to move large amount of goods and large number of people from one point to the other. In the 70s 80 s in the school we learnt that rail is the most cost efficient and environmental friend way of public mass transport and this system should be developed further and this is our future. Despite of this today’s we see millions of trucks are struggling on the European roads, stacking in traffic jams on the highways and making smog, causing day to day accidents and polluting the environment.

In EU still 80% of the goods are transported to long distances between countries by road trucks and rail transport restrained. Why do we need to poison our life more with that? We should gap back to the right track and develop the railways system and transport goods and people to long distance by rail. I am welcoming the new EU plan which aims to create a better transport system better connections: Seamlessly linking road, rail, air and water transport modes which will create a more efficient EU-wide transport network, making it easier for people and freight to travel. The plan would interconnect, by 2020, Europe’s passenger and freight transport information, management and payment systems. By 2050, all major airport hubs would have (preferably) high-speed connections to the rail network. All core seaports would be connected to the rail freight network and, where possible, to inland waterways. At the same time, the EU would extend and coordinate “user pays” and “polluter pays” principles to finance its transport infrastructure.
Source: ec.europa.eu/news/transport

Which I miss from the plane is the emphasised development intention of the railways system. The reason is understandable, it is a politically sensitive territory, still millions are working in the road transport system and for them it is disadvantageous if EU clearly express that wants to restrain the long distance transport by trucks and facilitate the rail transport.

The EU Commission summarized and tried to address the citizens 20 main concerns and FAQs in a Single Market Snapshot:

These FAQ are mainly related to working and living in another member state and some about liberalizing of telecommunication and energy services. The concerns are about the followings:

Social security. Patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare.
Residence cards for non-EU family members of an EU citizen.
Professionals who have difficulties getting their qualifications recognised in another Member State.
Workers who face discriminatory employment practices.
Tax barriers for cross-border workers and employers.
Opening a bank account abroad.
Students facing discrimination regarding recognition of diplomas, fees, and financial support.
Cross-border pension and inheritance tax issues.
Cross-border car registration and tax issues.
Passenger rights. complex and costly banking and financial services.
Consumers’ confidence in on-line shopping.
The best choice and price for of the energy supply.
Quality and price of Internet and telephony services.
Businesses being discouraged from participating in foreign public tenders.
Businesses access to finance.
Burdensome rules and procedures preventing entrepreneurs and investors from doing business in another country.
VAT cross-border refund procedures.
Protection of the intellectual property rights, patent protection.

These are all known and existing complex problems. Many of us are facing these problems day to day. They should be solved if we want to live in a free united Europe. We saw in the recent months that EU did a lot in order the clear up these barriers and difficulties but EU is still far not one country and does not speak one voice especially now in the crisis not.

Although in many areas and aspects of the Single Market great progress has been achieved in the last 20 years, but the Single Market is still not performing to its full potential and there are still lot of things to do to assure full freedom, equal rights and transparency for the citizens and for the business sphere.

Video: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I074386

The 20th anniversary provides the framework for a range of activities taking place in all Member States and centred on the Single Market Week for New Growth from 15 to 20 October 2012. These activities will focus on three objectives:

Recalling the achievements of 20 years of the Single Market;

Presenting and discussing new initiatives to stimulate growth in the Single Market;

Mobilizing the views and expectations of young adults about the Single Market.

A central interactive event will be organised in Brussels on 15 October in the European Parliament. It will be a mix of stimulating debates, video presentations, discussion rounds, quizzes with the audience and the award ceremony for the “Generation 1992″ competition (more details can be found here and here ) with the aim of providing input for future policy. A key focal point of the event will be on the generation of 20 year-olds, who were born in the year when the Single Market came into being and who do not remember Europe as it was before the Single Market. This theme is reflected in a short film which can be viewed here:

Video:

Single Market Week from europa.eu on Vimeo.

Many national events will be organised in the EU Member States in the days and weeks following 15 October. Their aim is to bring together citizens, businesses and public organisations to examine and discuss the state of the single market in a national context.

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Another interesting example for the Single Market anomalies (let me be here a bit local patriot Hungarian, while I am real European): Recently I spent a few days in Italy in the beautiful Alto Adige, Trento (South Tirol) region and – As I love the exceptional good Italian food, which is may be one of the best in Europe.- visited a few local supermarkets as well. Not fully surprisingly but I found there that “Salami Ungherese” (Hungarian Salami) is a well known, very well going premium product category, which is very good, but unfortunately none of the several Salami Ungherese products there were made in Hungary but all of them had label stating made in Italy mainly in Trento, produced by local companies.

Out of the tasty looks like and nice packing they are almost tasteless and far not the same as the real Hungarian Salamis (especially not like Pick, Hertz, Gyulai, Csabai traditional products) which are really “Hungaricums” (together with our famous Palinkas, Tokaji vine, Gulyas soup, Paprika spices, and so on…) and part of our national heritage same like Italians Parmiggano Reggano or their Proschutto Parmai Hams etc. Hungary is producing several excellent sparkling vines (Törlei, Hungária, BB etc.) but we do not call them “French Champagne (Made in  Tokaj, Hungary)”.

Anyhow, after tasting them realized that all of them are just very weak Italian made copies. Which is interesting in such a country where quality authenticity of food is one of the most important things. What could be the reason? Why there are no any made in Hungary original Pick, Hertz salami products on the shelves? We are not so far from that market, Hungary makes quite extensive marketing and export of these products, the packing, appearance, quality of these Hungarian products are really first class, price wise it is not so expensive so these factors can not be the reason. The real reasons can be different and I am afraid these reasons are rooted in the unbalanced EU Single Market and in the differences of the market powers . I am afraid Hungary does not receive real chance to penetrate to the Italian supermarkets chains because they built up such artificial and usually hidden barriers which are making impossible to bring there goods and appear on the shelves. (By the way, the same international companies are owning, running the hyper- and supermarkets there as here.) The Western European companies brings here their goods and pushing their sales massively while CEEU companies have not so much real chance to sell in Western Europe. Most probably these Western EU companies does not follow the unwritten but basic rules of use and let to use, enjoy and let to enjoy, live and let to live.

In the field of industrial raw materials, semi finished products, auxiliaries the Single Market is working much better more smooth and market participants are using the advantages of it very smartly because of the long time ago discovered and understood interdependency between the industrial producers and the complex production chains. But these segment is usually going under the surface and on the surface we see only the trading and availability of the finished products which are dominated by the Western EU products.

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The UN’s General Assembly has declared 2012 “The International Year of Sustainable Energy for All”. The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) is to take place in Brazil in June 2012. The objectives of Rio+20 are to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assess the progress made and address new and emerging challenges.

On the 16th of April 2012, the Danish EU Presidency and the EU Commission is hosting a conference on sustainable energy in Brussels (EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit). Among others, the conference is attended by the UN Secretary-General, the President of the EU Commission and the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation.

As EC President Barroso said today on the opening ceremony of the Sustainable Energy Summit: “Sustainable Energy for All” focused on energy access, which is key for global development: today, while one part of the planet lives in the digital era and in the times of digital communication, the other part has still no access to basic electricity, power or energy. Being in the dark every day is the tragic reality of 1.3 bn people in the world today.

Today, I announced a new Commission initiative called “Energising Development.” Its ambitious goal is clear: we want to help provide access to sustainable energy services to 500 million people by 2030. This is a huge objective, but if we work together it can be done. With 1bn Euros invested in global energy projects over the last five years, the EU is already the first global donor in this area.

But we should not rest on our laurels. Therefore, in the framework of “Energising Development” initiative, we will create an EU Technical Assistance Facility, initially in excess of €50 million over the next two years. This will help those developing countries that “opt in” to the UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative and commit to the necessary reforms to catalyze and leverage investment. In fact, the European Union together with its Member States is today the biggest financial contributor to UN and to UN Agencies.

If sustainable development, environment and climate action are truly global issues, so are peace, stability and democracy.”

But how EU and the western world could help those poor people the have electricity and modern technologies in their countries and homes? Nice project example is the EUROSOLAR EuropeAid program which from 2009 brings to South America renewable solar energy by photo-voltaic sets to providing electricity to isolated rural communities villages. Total budget: €36m (originally €30m, of which €6m from program’s 8 beneficiary countries). Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and in Perú.

The first EURO-SOLAR Kit started to work in Peru in October 2009 . During February the installation of the first electricity generation equipment was completed in the communities of Quebrada Honda and Morochata. Along with the electrification kit which, in the case of Bolivia, comprises hybrid solar-wind power systems; computers were also supplied together with a projector, multifunction equipment water purifier and a refrigerator.

Sources:

http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_12070_en.htm

http://www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_12077_en.htm

http://www.sustainableenergyforall.org/

http://eu2012.dk/en/NewsList/April/Week-15/Energy-for-all

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/what/energy/sustainable/se4all_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/latin-america/regional-cooperation/euro-solar/publications_en.htm

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Lady Jackson/Barbara Ward (1914-1981 ) was pioneer in the today’s well known and so important concept: „Sustainable Development”. She was the first who enlight and seed this idea into to the wild public in its today’s known context.

Barbara Mary Ward (1914 – 1981), in later life Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, was a British economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries. She urged Western governments to share their prosperity with the rest of the world and in the 1960s turned her attention to environmental questions as well. She was an early advocate of sustainable development before this term became familiar and was well-known as a journalist, lecturer and broadcaster.

With hindsight, Ward is seen as a pioneer of sustainable development. She and René Dubos, co-authors of Only One Earth (ISBN 039330129X), have been described as “parents” of a concept which “did not know its own name at first”. Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet was written for the 1972 UN Stockholm conference on the Human Environment.

Ward’s work was rooted in her sense of morality and Christian values. She saw care of the environment and concern for the well-being of all humankind as a “dual responsibility”, especially for anyone sharing her religious outlook. At the same time, she believed wealth distribution combined with conservation was essentially a rational policy: “We are a ship’s company on a small ship. Rational behaviour is the condition of survival.”

Sustainability and sustainable development will be one of the main core subjects of Rio+20 20st anniversary Earth Summit which will be held in June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ThinkBrigade 35 young reporters will give you extensive coverage on that even. If you are interested in environment and reading interesting Planet Earth related things pls. follow us.

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (UN Bruntland Report 1987)

Sources:

Wikipedia Biography of Barbara Ward, 14 Apr. 2012.

 ”Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2012.

Video:

Links:

International Institute for Environment and Development

Book:

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Great video, discussion: about the truth regarding, climate change, global warming, renewing energy, UFCCC, COP17, CDM.

As Connie said “The process is irritatingly slow and frustrating”.

I have a strong feeling that if they fail again in Durban we need a new better stronger leader as head of UFCCC and for that the best would be Connie Hedegaard. I think if they fail again in Durban Christiana Figueres should resign. EU should lead this process further.

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Image by Phillip Stearns via Flickr

Image by gmarinich via Flickr

There were chaotic scenes as protesters resisted police

New York police have dismantled the Occupy Wall Street camp in Zuccotti Park and arrested about 200 people following a raid in the early hours.

Protesters were ordered to leave at about 01:00 (06:00 GMT), before police began removing tents and property.

The New York camp was set up in September to protest against economic inequality – it inspired similar demonstrations around the world.

The message here is that income inequality is widening in America and that the banks received a bailout after the financial crisis which protesters feel they were responsible for causing.

Leaflets were handed out telling occupants to “immediately remove all private property” and warning they would be arrested if they interfered with the operation.

The area around the park was sealed off and journalists were prevented from entering. Some of the activists accused police of using excessive force and pepper spray.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said most people left the park when ordered, but that a small group of people had refused.

The 200 or so people arrested included some who had chained themselves together.

Activists released a statement saying that while they may have been physically removed, “you can’t evict an idea whose time has come”.

The Occupy movement, inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings and economic protest camps in Spain, is calling for a more equal distribution of the world’s wealth and a fairer response to the global economic crisis.

US

The most high profile protest has been Occupy Wall Street in New York, which began on 17 September. The protesters call themselves “the 99%” and are demanding major reforms of the global financial system by curbing the power of banks and corporations. Protests have also taken place in cities across the US, including Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston and Boston. On 15 November, police moved in to clear the Occupy Wall Street protest, earlier they had cleared camps in Portland, Oregon and Oakland, California.

Europe

A protest in Madrid’s Sol Square began in May and turned into a week-long sit in. Renewed protests in Europe started on 15 October with demonstrations in Rome, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Hamburg, Dublin, Bucharest, Zurich and other cities. Demonstrations were largely peaceful, but around 70 people were injured when violence broke out in Rome.

UK

Protests at the London Stock Exchange in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street began on 15 October. After being denied access to Paternoster Square in front of the stock exchange, demonstrators organised a camp of around 150 tents outside St Paul’s Cathedral. Protesters have been told their camp can remain until the new year, after plans to legally evict them were abandoned.

Canada

Demonstrations and protest camps began on 15 October in major cities, including Calgary, Halifax, Quebec, Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria. Police have cleared protesters from sites in Halifax and Ontario but campaigners at the biggest camp, in Toronto, have been allowed to remain.

Australia

Protests began in Sydney and Melbourne on 15 October. Police forcibly removed around 100 demonstrators from the Melbourne camp on 21 October.

Organisers in the US say most of the country’s money is held by the richest 1% of the population and that they represent the other 99%.

A number of other US cities have seen protests camps spring up in the past two months, and the Occupy movement has also spread to Europe, South America and Asia.

Already a billion of us go to bed hungry every night. Not because there isn’t enough, but because of the deep injustice in the way the system works. (Oxfam)

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A new Europe must be built on the ruins of the old

I am honestly shocked by this article:

Only a redrafted constitution will revive the EU: there could be no worse end to this saga than imposition of German ‘discipline’

Author: Simon Jenkins guardian.co.uk, Published: Thursday 10 November 2011 21.30 GMT Article history Illustration by Satoshi Kambayashi

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a cliche. Crisis spirals out of control and Armageddon moves to the brink of abyss. “Europe” is too big to fail yet too big to succeed. Each newscast is a crash course in economics, each headline an incitement to suicide. But since we are not at war and few understand what is going on, the rest cannot believe it. As if watching the fall of Icarus, they sense the gods are angry but return quietly to the plough.

This week the European backwash of the crash of 2008 moved way beyond high finance. Economics may have pushed politics to the wall, but in Greece, Italy and, more important, Germany, politics is hitting back, hard. Yelling, spitting and choking with frustration, it has had enough of economics, and has beaten it to the ground. Yesterday it claimed its first scalp, demanding a new ruler of Greece.

There is no point in European Union acolytes loftily opining that “it was a pity” Greece was admitted to the euro. It was more than a pity, it was a crime. There is no point in bewailing the reluctance of Germans to bail out Greeks or Latins, or let their bankers print billions of cash. There is no point in hectoring or dreaming. A 50-year fiction is over. As often before in history, a new Europe must be built on the ruins of the old, and we had better get used to it.

It is a massive irony that old Europe’s last gasp should be to seek the very outcome it sought in the 1950s to avoid, German supremacy. The one thing on which I agree with my colleague, Timothy Garton Ash, on Comment is freeyesterday, is that “if the eurozone is saved, it will be as a fiscal union on largely German terms”. Substitute the word political for fiscal, as honesty dictates, and we are back to the ghoulish first half of the 20th century. European union is always on someone’s “terms”, and they rarely have much to do with consent.

There is one difference today. Garton Ash may want “the kind of budget, debt and wage discipline [Germany] has practised with such impressive results over the last decade, and now seeks for the whole eurozone”. It may be “precisely what Europe needs”. But what Europe needs does not embrace the enforcement of what Germany would like to see.

We might have said the same of the British empire in its heyday, that British discipline was “what the peoples of India and Africa” needed. We could mow them down when they disagreed. Germany has no panzer divisions, nor does it desire to dominate Europe politically, and without that desire there is no means of enforcement. The implied German supremacism of the EU’s last-ditchers, under the euphemism of “fiscal union”, is archaic, elitist, dangerous and mercifully impossible.

The paradox is that this impossibility is to the credit of the postwar European movement itself. It has achieved what it set out to do, to liberate the nations of Europe from fear of German overlord-ship. This liberation has allowed France to walk proud, Britain to enjoy semi-detachment, Scandinavia to think for itself and middle Europe to breathe free. The EU lobby may have cobbled together institutions for a united states of Europe, but it was a fool’s errand, and one that could only play into the hands of German revanchism.

The tragedy is that the chosen vehicle of European union should have been a common currency. This ostensibly innocent tool is a weapon of mass economic destruction. It has imposed its clammy grip on divergent national economies, forcing hundreds of thousands of workers and their families to flee the “overvalued” countries of east and south Europe to seek work in the north. Others were kept at home only by government jobs funded by reckless foreign indebtedness. The reason was not just the fixing of the value of the euro to the Deutschmark, but the fixing of any weak currencies inflexibly to stronger ones. The resource cost of the euro over the past two decades must have been stupendous.

A common currency as a means of imposing wage or fiscal discipline on uncompetitive states is a crude economic sanction. As with all sanctions, it corrupts and distorts domestic politics and makes electorates hostile to external pressure. To Eurocrats this hostility, like democracy itself, is a little local difficulty. But sooner or later, push comes to shove. Greeks and Italians are toppling leaders who fail to listen to them, and voters in Germany are threatening likewise. European political union, the universalist dream of visionaries, has met its Waterloo.

Some confederacies have worked, such as the US, India and the United Kingdom (so far). But the EU was always a confection of elitist diplomacy, supported by Europe’s peoples only for as long as they thought it would bring them money. It sought to craft a political entity from cultures whose differences have defied Hapsburgs, Bourbons, Napoleon and Hitler alike. Political union is a discredited orthodoxy and its advocates should retreat gracefully.

The sensible route forward is not underpinning the euro at some new and temporary frontier, and “kicking the can down the street”. It is for those states that sincerely wish to merge their political institutions with their neighbours – there must be precious few – to find common ground within the euro.

Countries in southern Europe must recover their economic separateness and their political souls, writing off debts and devaluing their currencies, as Britain has done. Then Europe can find a new equilibrium. Metaphors of “two-speed” Europe, inner and outer clubs, and trains or planes being missed are meaningless. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are right, as is David Cameron. A new and more flexible constitution for Europe is blatantly needed.

This constitution will be easier to define than to engineer. It must somehow retain the (overrated) gains of free trade, but accept that there will be many unlevel playing fields. The German Reichstag or Bundesbank cannot legislate for Greek labour laws, Italian opening hours or British tax havens. The currencies of less competitive states must float. The lash of devaluation and domestic austerity is one thing when self-imposed. When edicts emanate from unaccountable foreign agencies, as now in Greece and Italy, it is not. There could be no more disastrous last chapter to this sorry saga than the crude imposition of German “discipline” on the weaker members of the EU. Who would enforce it?

Europe is a continent, not a panacea. It can no longer be seen as an ideological construct, whose adherents treat all challenge as an offence against infallibility. Historically, its strength has been its diversity, a high street not a hypermarket of nationalisms. Each time a centralised power has denied this and struggled to impose “union”, the outcome has been catastrophe, followed by the need to restore and reassert the sovereignty of nations. This time round, the catastrophe has remained economic. It could yet be a near-run thing.

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Very strong, hard British words. Is is really so bad or will be so bad? Or it is just the usual historical British conservatism which oppose and obstruct?

Have a look to some of the comments. (This is only the first page all together until now 444 comments.) Read them! Interesting. Like  a snapshot of folk’s social attitudes. Or distorting mirror…?

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CigarLover

10 November 2011 9:35PM

A new Europe must be built on the ruins of the old

That’s right.

One not driven by Socialism and Bureaucracy but democracy and free trade and less regulated.

The Euro has been a failure, while a great idea in principle it has ignored the role of democracy in the process. For that reason it will fail as we are seeing.

I would like to see a return to governance by nation states, and just a free trade deal signed by members instead of a supra national bureaucracy micro managing our lives.

Europe is not the same as the EU.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 9:37PM

This constitution will be easier to define than to engineer. It must somehow retain the (overrated) gains of free trade, but accept that there will be many unlevel playing fields.

There can never be a level playing field, and never has been.

If Italy wants to subsidise Ferrari with taxpayer money, well let them do it. It means a cheaper Ferrari for me and higher taxes for Italian taxpayers.

Subsidising your industries with taxpayer money is not any more sensible than shooting your own foot.
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zapthecrap

10 November 2011 9:37PM

German discipline is never a good idea.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 9:40PM

A common currency as a means of imposing wage or fiscal discipline on uncompetitive states is a crude economic sanction

No the currency is not that important.

What is important is trying to impose a level playing field with regards to regulations on economies that are not in the same boat.

Germany can perhaps cope with higher regulatory costs as its productivity is higher, Greece can’t. Greece needs deregulation to compete.

The level playing field only benefits countries that already have an advantage.
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poppy23

10 November 2011 9:45PM

Belgium has no government

Greek democracy is dictated in Berlin

Spain has eye watering levels of youth unemployment

Italian debt is 120% of its GDP

Tax evasion is rife across the Union

The EU’s auditors haven’t ever given the accounts a clean bill of health

Germany and the Netherlands are running masive supluses on the back of misery in Europe’s periphery

And we fear being left out of this club?
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Arapas

10 November 2011 9:47PM

A new Europe must be built on the ruins of the old

Charles De Gaulle ( You know, that French fellow that did not want the UK anywhere near the EEU !) must be revving like a racing car’s engine in his grave !
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 9:47PM

Some confederacies have worked, such as the US, India and the United Kingdom (so far). But the EU was always a confection of elitist diplomacy, supported by Europe’s peoples only for as long as they thought it would bring them money.

How is the UK a confederacy? The UK has one the most centralised form of governments in the western world (say pre devolution to Scotland and Wales) ??

The longest lasting and most stable confederacy is which you have ignored : Switzerland.
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Strummered

10 November 2011 9:47PM

Europe is a work in progress, always has been – Maybe it needed this wake-up call in order to put it’s house in order. I’m trying to think of positives, this constant barrage of doom is rather depressing.
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ABOCbKA

10 November 2011 9:51PM

1) Get rid of Euro;

2) Get rid of subsidies;

3) Get the Southern and Central/Eastern Europe to be responsible for their own destiny; and

4) Get free traiding again…
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JFBridge

10 November 2011 9:56PM

The fact that the Germans are the largest economy in the EU and have been little affected by the debt crisis means it’s inevitable that they are taking the lead at present.But it’s not neccesarily a New Europe needed but a new consensus.From Italy to Ireland,Portugal to Spain,Greece to the UK,various political parties and their leaders put irrational faith in an over-reliance on Free-market neo-liberalism in it’s economic thinking,whereas Germany and the Scandinavian nations (with the exception of debt-battered Iceland) kept faith with a mixed,Social Market,Social Democrat economic consensus.We don’t have to be literally ruled over by Germany in a New Europe,but fiscal and economic discipline German-style is a lesson that certainly needs to be learned.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 9:56PM

Historically, its strength has been its diversity, a high street not a hypermarket of nationalisms. Each time a centralised power has denied this and struggled to impose “union”, the outcome has been catastrophe, followed by the need to restore and reassert the sovereignty of nations. This time round, the catastrophe has remained economic. It could yet be a near-run thing.

Yes, the last time Germany tried to impose a Union by force (Hitler) and we all know how that ended?

Europeans will not and have not been enslaved by a foreign power, and the EU will fail because of that.

One of the main reasons for Europe’s success over hundreds of years has been the inability to impose too high taxes or regulations by nation states without seeing business move to a neighbouring European nation.
The EU ignores this basic principle.
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ContraryGit

10 November 2011 9:57PM
Response to CigarLover, 10 November 2011 9:35PM

That’s right.

One not driven by Socialism and Bureaucracy but democracy and free trade and less regulated.

You think Europe is socialist? Really? … REALLY?
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Strummered

10 November 2011 9:57PM
Response to zapthecrap, 10 November 2011 9:37PM

Not imposed on others, no…..But taking a leaf out of their book and showing a bit of self discipline wouldn’t hurt many countries.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 9:59PM
Response to ContraryGit, 10 November 2011 9:57PM

You think Europe is socialist? Really? … REALLY?

Firstly Europe is not the EU.

If your question is whether the EU is Socialist – then yes, it is a coalition. And some of the interests are Socialist.
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thegreatfatsby

10 November 2011 10:02PM

Greece has nothing to compete with.

They import the vast majority of the food they consume, which if they deregulate will become much more expensive. Their wages will drop again. They produce and export precious little. We are where we are and it is useless to stand on self- righteous little National soapboxes on such a tiny planet apportioning blame. The ship is on fire. We are all on it. How the fire started is not now the fucking problem.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 10:02PM
Response to ContraryGit, 10 November 2011 9:57PM

You think Europe is socialist? Really? … REALLY?

Unless you think it is a great Capitalist policy to impose a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) ??
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ContraryGit

10 November 2011 10:05PM
Response to CigarLover, 10 November 2011 9:59PM

If your question is whether the EU is Socialist – then yes, it is a coalition. And some of the interests are Socialist.

Whether or not something is a coalition has no relevance to whether or not it is socialist.
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teaandchocolate

10 November 2011 10:06PM
Response to CigarLover, 10 November 2011 9:35PM

O

ne not driven by Socialism and Bureaucracy but democracy and free trade and less regulated.

What is this hokum? The Eurozone was broken by a free market and zero regulation on banks.

Trust me, if Europeans had anything near democracy, they would say NO to neoliberalism and extreme capitalism and YES to bank regulation and democratic socialism.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 10:07PM
Response to ContraryGit, 10 November 2011 10:05PM

Whether or not something is a coalition has no relevance to whether or not it is socialist.

To have a coalition with Socialists, you need to throw at them some Socialist policies.
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ContraryGit

10 November 2011 10:08PM
Response to CigarLover, 10 November 2011 10:02PM

Unless you think it is a great Capitalist policy to impose a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) ??

Keynes seemed to think so.
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teaandchocolate

10 November 2011 10:10PM

A new Europe must be built on the ruins of the old

Yes, and it will be, because evryone remembers the Europe we had before: a nationalistic, right-wing, war mongering, sniping mess. It’s going back that way now.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 10:10PM
Response to ContraryGit, 10 November 2011 10:08PM

Keynes seemed to think so.

Keynes was a Socialist / Fascist.

Benito Mussolini was a big fan of him.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 10:12PM
Response to teaandchocolate, 10 November 2011 10:06PM

Trust me, if Europeans had anything near democracy, they would say NO to neoliberalism and extreme capitalism and YES to bank regulation and democratic socialism.

Only if you consider the pros without the cons (business leaving to a neighbouring european country).

That’s what kept Europe in check for hundreds of years. With the EU, less competitive countries couldn’t deregulate to compete.
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taxedtothelimit

10 November 2011 10:13PM

What Europe needs is flexibility at the moment only the inner core members are suited to full on union.
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ragadowblay

10 November 2011 10:13PM

The reason was not just the fixing of the value of the euro to the Deutschmark, but the fixing of any weak currencies inflexibly to stronger ones. The resource cost of the euro over the past two decades must have been stupendous.

This ultimately is, and has been, the problem with Euro; to bring all economies in line, within acceptable criteria and parameters, in order for their admission into the Euro, those weaker economies had to be propped up…the cost of doing that was phenomenal…entire countries – i.e. Ireland, Greece, Portugal – were brought up to the apparent same standard of living as Germany and France…

…and no one batted an eye-lid…

…I’m a believer needing strong ties within some Pan-Euorpean context, but we should’a done better…
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JLengeler

10 November 2011 10:14PM

This article is bordering on the hysterical, its historical references are all flawed, and at times it is outright insulting. There is no German “Reichstag” , except as a building.
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jolyonwagg1

10 November 2011 10:15PM

The north of Europe as lost patience with the south of Europe, that is the simple truth of the matter. You can help a friend out by writing a cheque, but what happens when the friend just expects more cash cheques, and looks like as if he as very little intention to pay any of the money back? Merkel knows this, as do the German tax payers, and they have had enough.

A widespread problem within southern EU economies is the rigid employment laws that discourage employers from taking on any new staff even if there business was expanding, together with a trade union mentality that is frozen in a 1970′s time warp resisting any form of change to out dated employment laws. Brussels and the EU elite are so obsessed with building the ‘new social Europe’ that they have forgotten we live in a global competitive world market. Asia is on the rise, while Europe navel gaze’s over EU treaty changes. Giving mothers and fathers lots of rights etc does not help the small employer who is left short handed when they take extended leave.

Barosso and VanRompuy need to wake up to the new world order if the euro is to survive? The euro is fast dropping down the scale of world currencies?
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ContraryGit

10 November 2011 10:16PM
Response to CigarLover, 10 November 2011 10:10PM

Keynes was a Socialist / Fascist.

Benito Mussolini was a big fan of him.

There’s a not-too-subtle difference between socialism and fascism. Mussolini was a fascist who hated socialism.

Keynes (I don’t know whether he was a fascist or not) has been regarded by many though as the saviour of capitalism.
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ragadowblay

10 November 2011 10:17PM
Response to teaandchocolate, 10 November 2011 10:06PM

ne not driven by Socialism and Bureaucracy but democracy and free trade and less regulated.

What is this hokum? The Eurozone was broken by a free market and zero regulation on banks

Agree completely…

These people cannot accept the reality that does more than just stare them in the face…it’s kicking them in the ass, and they still won’t believe it…
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dongerdo

10 November 2011 10:18PM
Response to JLengeler, 10 November 2011 10:14PM

Especially the undertone of the germans wanting to rule the continent out of some sense of supremacy is simply insulting….
This piece could have been written in the 40s – It’s just appaling
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teaandchocolate

10 November 2011 10:18PM
Response to CigarLover, 10 November 2011 10:12PM

Times are changing, and Neoliberalism has failed us all. Why replace a failed model with the same failed model. It’s madness.
Neoliberalism is not democratic. It’s got to stop.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 10:18PM
Response to ContraryGit, 10 November 2011 10:16PM

Keynes (I don’t know whether he was a fascist or not) has been regarded by many though as the saviour of capitalism.

I would suggest he was the founding father of Socialism in the UK for starters – e.g after WW2.

He was essentially a shill for more government control and spending, hence favoured by the establishment who benefit from such policies.
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CrepuscularMutant

10 November 2011 10:24PM

So; Europe is going down the pan, the borders are heading back up and the Eurosceptics are creaming their pants with “I told you so’s”.

How very fucking depressing.

Someone please wake me up when its all over. Say 2017…
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JLengeler

10 November 2011 10:25PM
Response to dongerdo, 10 November 2011 10:18PM

I suppose he is just repeating what is being said in the corridors of Whitehall. Which is even more worrying.
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JLengeler

10 November 2011 10:30PM

And yet those so-called experts in Whitehall, Fleet Street and the City are misreading the situation completely. They think the European dream is over – but the French and Germans are stubborn. We have survived far worse in our history. We’ll find a way to sort out this mess, too.
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 10:31PM
Response to teaandchocolate, 10 November 2011 10:18PM

Times are changing, and Neoliberalism has failed us all. Why replace a failed model with the same failed model. It’s madness.

We have had too little neoliberalism, and too much crony capitalism. That’s where our problems lie.

Lets deregulate Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Amsterdam all to match the City of London in competiveness. That’s the way we can solve the EU crisis.

Lets go back to what made all those cities great in the first place!
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teaandchocolate

10 November 2011 10:35PM

This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.
dongerdo

10 November 2011 10:37PM
Response to JLengeler, 10 November 2011 10:25PM

It’s like Michael White wrote yesterday

If Britain ever needs friends and allies abroad again, perhaps in an unplanned financial crisis, I hope they’ve got a few in their back pockets. But who?

The eurosceptics might be right about the failiure of the euro. But Mister Jenkins should consider one thing – they might be wrong.
With every day passing more bad blood between GB and the continent builds up and people like Jenkins are thriving on it (Camerons lecutirng the G20 participants didn’t quite help either). Don’t be fooled for one second that this will be forgotten.

Germany is moving for closer bonds with the BRIC states for years now, France is also reevaluating her alliances and the glorious assumption of the eurosceptics, that a failiure of the Euro/ redesign of the EU itself would naturally lead to a free trade zone with GB as equal partner, might very well prove to be very, very wrong….

I am honestly shocked by this article
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Whinemerchant

10 November 2011 10:38PM
Response to JLengeler, 10 November 2011 10:14PM

I am glad that someone else thinks this. I thought for a moment it was just me.
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lckf

10 November 2011 10:41PM

I am honestly shocked by this article

Why? The average Europhobe never moved away from their Edwardian jerry-hating mentality. Simon Jenkins or Simon Heffer, makes no difference. Hating the Germans is becoming en vogue again.
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zapthecrap

10 November 2011 10:41PM
Response to Strummered, 10 November 2011 9:57PM

German discipline aimed at the markets and spivs but not the poor.
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Scipio1

10 November 2011 10:44PM

So it’s back to a multi-currency europe complete with inflation, competitive devaluations, trade and currency wars. All the things the euro was designed to prevent. The thing about currency wars is that the winner will be the one who succeeds in making themselves poorest. See James Rickards – Currency Wars You think you’ve seen austerity, you aint seen nothing yet.

Unquestionably, currency wars will be the next phase of the global crisis as each nation tries to dump its problems on its neighbours. This an other types of protectionism will feature in a run-up to a possible shooting war. Ah, yes what joy is the end of the euro. But of course the markets will love it, as currency and exchange rate chaos offer rich speculative opportunities for making money out of chaos.

The only victors here, and this will become apparent in due course are the bond, forex and derivative markets. You think the EU is neo-liberal, believe me you ain’t seen nothing yet.
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dongerdo

10 November 2011 10:44PM
Response to lckf, 10 November 2011 10:41PM

Sure, but the openness and naturalness to which extent this starts to drench most major newspapers all over europe is appaling….
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lckf

10 November 2011 10:48PM

So it’s back to a multi-currency europe complete with inflation, competitive devaluations, trade and currency wars.

Without the Euro, there will only be one currency, the D-Mark, and any number of satellite currencies pegged to it. The economic imperative that Eurosceptics seem to be so fond of is evident. The gravity well of German economic clout will draw first smaller neighbours into its orbit, from Holland, Denmark, Austria to the Czech Republic and Poland, and then wider to France, Spain, Italy and the UK. There’s only a choice between sharing sovereignty over currency on a multi-national ECB board, or waiting for the fax from the Bundesbank.
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JLengeler

10 November 2011 10:49PM
Response to dongerdo, 10 November 2011 10:37PM

The Euro should have come as a result of deeper integration, not as the vehicle to achieve it. That was a grave mistake but there is no point in crying over spilt milk. We need to find a solution, not culprits.
I find it rather sad that Whitehall is yet again failing to grasp this chance. For decades now they have always complained about the Franco-German axis. Yet when the golden opportunity arrives to influence events in a constructive way and become a valued partner, all they can offer is phrases that could have been taken from a 19th-century history book on Empire and the Napoleonic Wars.
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penruddock

10 November 2011 10:49PM

According to Simon, “A new and more flexible constitution for Europe is blatantly needed”

Is it really? What’s wrong with the existing 27 constitutions? Why not forget a pan-European constitution altogether and revert to Europe as a loose association of independent states? The Treaty of Lisbon has been a failure and is openly breached in one form or another nearly every day. Why should any other EU treaty be any more successful? Better to return to basics and start again, but with no over-arching treaties and with far less wild and irresponsible ambition.
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lckf

10 November 2011 10:50PM
Response to dongerdo, 10 November 2011 10:44PM

I suppose one wouldn’t expect this from the Guardian but people like Kettle and Jenkins are elderly and, therefore, a trend towards conservatism and fear of foreigners is to be expected, I suppose.
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paulywarlydoodle

10 November 2011 10:53PM
Response to CigarLover, 10 November 2011 10:31PM

Are you mad? where have you been for the last five years , deregulation has led to wordwide economic meltdown and hardship for millions of people, unregulated financial centres in London and Wall Street have caused a disaster like a tsunami, now we are in credit crunch part two, people do not need volatility, they need a stable envronment to raise children and not be subject to market forces caused by mad economic theories.
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BobTheCobra

10 November 2011 10:56PM
Response to CrepuscularMutant, 10 November 2011 10:24PM

FIrst,

Europe =/= the EU

No-one, even us Sceptics, are happy about this

Try 2021
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CigarLover

10 November 2011 10:57PM
Response to paulywarlydoodle, 10 November 2011 10:53PM

people do not need volatility, they need a stable envronment to raise children and not be subject to market forces caused by mad economic theories.

Most of the volatility is caused by speculation on what governments and central banks would do next.
New regulations, QE, interest rate policies, EU bailouts, Financial transaction taxes, etc.

If we put all those concerns to rest, we can get back to rebuilding a sound economy again.

——————————————————————————————

Related articles

• Is the euro tearing Europe apart? (cnn.com)
• Those gloating at the eurozone’s plight should be careful what they wish for | Timothy Garton Ash (guardian.co.uk)
• Acropolis now: Greece may be just the start (macleans.ca)
• Germany’s rendezvous with history will also put Cameron on the rack | Timothy Garton Ash (guardian.co.uk)
• A new Europe must be built on the ruins of the old | Simon Jenkins (guardian.co.uk)
• These national Euro-debates are just what we need – if there is still time | Timothy Garton Ash (guardian.co.uk)
• Europe’s great-and-good, at bay (blogs.ft.com)
• France, Germany Explore Plans To Radically Overhaul European Union (huffingtonpost.com)

We are suffering in these days from never seen high EUR and CHF exchange rates versus CEEU currencies from a dangerous devaluation. We might feel that some powers behind are using our economies like puppets in a very bad nightmare circus. The continuous restrictions, raising prices, taxes and overall financial crisis blocks and slows down the EU economies import export trading and will cause tremendous problems and does not lead us to a bright future.

Governments are launching newer and newer taxes, cost increases, cuts, and restrictions almost each day in order to save the countries from the danger of national bankruptcy. But the big money disappearing in the big hat and savings are also disappearing due to the currency devaluations and costs and prices overall increasing so no one is able to decrease the depths and step out from the credit hook.  Modern capitalism and bank system has fallen. Pumping more money into the existing banks does not help at all. This is the worst what we can do. Germany and other EU member states spent already too much money to save economies like Portugal and Greece and as we can see it did not help problems are getting worst.

The root of the sickness is the oil and carbon dependent economy and the related monetary, bank and stock exchange system especially the monetary trading. The money itself does not help this system any more it is only oil for the fire. For now it is quite clear that stock exchange and trading with money currencies (Forex…) like with apples is not a healthy idea. We can earn real healthy money only by creating and adding new values. System is sick. Few earn and gain a lot but we the masses are loosing our pants at the end. I think these all you know and feel the over all bad atmosphere. In this weeks our high level EU leaders are frequently meeting in Brussels and trying to find out what would be the best balm elixir to prevent EU from the misery. I am afraid, crisis escalating faster than the decision makers solutions developing.

Seems that hot issues of climate change, global warming, great ideas and urgent tasks regarding climate finance, alternative energy technology change, UNFCC, Kyoto Protocol negotiations are a bit falling from our daily top agenda while exactly these new policies, technologies and especially a strong binding comprehensive climate agreement would lead us out from the current money and oil misery situation. This would be the elixir for the current problems and could lead us into a new age and new economy. But as we leave sickness to develop treatment will be also long and losses significant.

Waiting for your think tank ideas.

KL