generalspeaking

Sunday, July 05, 2015

EU Solidarity Breakdown

"Just on a purely practical or strategic level, Angela Merkel doesn't want to be the chancellor to start breaking down the European Union."
"The common currency was in some parts designed to keep Germany in Europe. The reason for being of the European project, and the European Union, is to avoid the nationalist and destructive tendencies of the past, of which Germany was a lead player obviously, but blame can be roundly shared. The aim, principally, was to preserve peace in Europe after (the) Second World War."
"And it is not without reason. Germans are very well aware of their past, and recent generations of Germans are especially wary and aware of their past."
"So the European project for most Germans, elite and non-elite alike, is about more than a currency union, or a trade union, or even a union that allows for the free movement of people It's an idea, it's part of the German identity."
"Greeks and Germans share this deep, existential attachment to the European project, and that may be what carries through."
Phil Triadafilopoulos, associated professor, political science, University of Toronto

"Germany, first and foremost, wants to be the country that makes sure that everybody plays by the rules, and the same rules apply to everybody."
"[Germany has been recognized as a country which] writes the cheques but stays in the background. People get very nervous when Germany thrusts itself on the global stage. We spent the first 50 years of the 20th Century trying to push the Germans back into their borders, we spent the next 50 years trying to keep them there, and now we're all surprised when they're kind of reluctant to go anywhere."
"This is also how the Germans look at their economic might."
Christian Leuprecht, political scientist, Royal Military College of Canada, Queen's University

Greece`s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Friday secured a valuable message of political support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin balkaninside.com

Germany's influence on Europe, its history and its impact through two world wars, each one of which was viewed as the war to end all wars, has been profound. A greater evil is hard to envision, even the disastrous effects of Communism and the domination in east Europe of the Soviet Union does not quite match the totalitarian imperialism of fascist Germany, although both Fascism and Communism extracted an immense loss of human life through their furious struggles of conquest.

Germany has succeeded in reforming itself. Once the torment of the free world, it now represents a stalwart nation of the free world. It has repented, it has admitted its horrible impact on world society, its guilt and the unforgivable nature of its predations, and the country has striven to make amends so far as such a feeble response to a hugely morbid slaughter can be amenable to reparation. Now it leads the European Union with its strict interpretation of morality and fiscal ethics.

The European Union represents an Eureka! moment of collective determination to avoid any possible future European conflict through a common union ensuring that shared values and opportunities might degrade options for resentment and future conflicts. Freedom of EU movement where citizens of member-countries could seek better opportunities among member-states has proven controversial. Uniformity of standards imposed on all members has been accepted with griping.

Uncertainty over a shared common currency was surmounted by a guarantee of mutual support, and member-countries' populations adjusted to the surrender of that last symbol of sovereignty. And now the failure of a handful of countries to adapt to the common standards ending up on the brink of economic failure, saved only by the transfer of bridging funds and the enactment of austerity measures has seen countries like Spain, Italy, Ireland, Portugal save themselves, but Greece falling over the precipice.

The conundrum of how to avoid military conflict appears to have been solved with room to spare, while the irritating problem of countries living within their means and solving the problem of fiscal bickering remains unsolved, and Greece's position, a country whose social ethos is closer to the socialist-communist ideal reflective of Russian-style communalism than West European capitalism has nudged it ever closer to Russia's new and emerging sphere of influence.