What a fine mess we are in! It seems that Greeks have
reacted furiously to a German proposal—made after mounting speculation that international lenders will have to stump up yet more money for Greece—of appointing a European “budget commissioner” with veto powers over Greece’s spending, which would partially suspend the country’s national sovereignty over its budget.
As far as I can tell, even though being no expert in the field (but then again, isn’t it true that the crisis, and the failure of the so-called experts, made us all a lot more “aware” of financial issues?), it seems to me that there is something seriously wrong with this whole bailouts/no bailouts thing. Perhaps the Germans are a bit out of control, so to speak, but, at the same time, it would be unfair to say that they have no excuse. And yet they are the target of criticism from all sides, almost as if they were the main cause of the crisis, which is definitely untrue, even though they have their part of responsibility in the eurozone debt crisis, as
this BBC article shows (a very interesting read indeed).
OK, reading news such as that which provoked the above mentioned anger and indignation of the Greeks, one cannot but wonder, “What is left of the European project?” But, to be honest, how many Europeans still believe in “the European project?” As for myself, I have never liked “this” Europe: a-Christian, if not anti-Christian, in tendency, “libertarian” in ethical issues, bureaucratic in its approach to a number of issues and operational schemes, slightly, if not blatantly, anti-American. Well, I loved the Europe the Founding Fathers—Adenauer, De Gasperi, Schuman, Monnet…—wanted to build, but let’s be honest with ourselves, what is left of that dream? The Euro?
That being said, let me just say that I, and I know I’m going against the mainstream, as a citizen of a country named Italy, am … slightly grateful to those EU countries whose stubbornness contributed to paving the way for
a new era of Italian politics. It was exactly what Italy—a country with enormous potentialities—needed. Of course, it would have been better if there would have been no need for that, but in life you have to make the most of what you have got. In
today’s EU leaders summit in Brussels, discussions over Greece and the permanent rescue fund will dominate the talks. I hope the results won’t be frustrating with regard to the actual, not the “perceived” needs of EU countries.
