Hans Rustad Angela Merkel sa mandag at EU befinner seg i den dypeste krise siden slutten av annen verdenskrig. Svaret er ikke mindre Europa, men mer.
Merkel sa rett ut at det betyr politisk union. Dermed har hun valgt fordypning, som i den nåværende situasjon bare kan bety en felles budsjettkontroll og skattepolitikk. Det er forutsetningen hvis alle land hefter for hverandres gjeld.
Problemet er bare at Frankrike stritter imot sanksjoner og budsjettkontroll.
“It is time for a breakthrough to a new Europe,” she told the annual conference of Christian Democratic Union party in Leipzig. “The task of our generation is to complete economic and monetary union, and build political union in Europe, step by step . . . That does not mean less Europe, it means more Europe.”
Problemet er at det landet som ville trengt en slik union for å unngå en krise a la Italia, Frankrike, er sterkt imot enhver budsjettkontroll med sanksjoner. For ikke å snakke om Storbritannia som neppe vil gå med i en politisk union.
Selv om Merkels plan kan redde euroen, er det som så ofte i EU, sterk uenighet om midlene.
The CDU resolution calls for EU treaty changes to enforce budget discipline, and create a European monetary fund to ward off future financial crises. It also proposes the direct election by all EU voters of future presidents of the European Commission, to give a face to “political union”, and calls for the European parliament and the Council of Ministers to form a bicameral parliamentary system, with the right to initiate EU legislation.
Although not binding for the German coalition government, it will become the policy of the largest party, and a clear indication of its future strategy.
Paris is firmly opposed to any suggestion of automatic sanctions to discipline spending in the eurozone. London has always resisted the idea of closer political union at the level of the full EU, and is worried that financial regulation for the eurozone alone would endanger the wider EU single market for financial services.
