Although, I make a distinction between Europe, as in the continent, and the United Kingdom, which I think is fair culturally and as far as identity, the UK is part of the EU. Perhaps if the matter went to a vote in the UK, they would no longer participate. As of now, the UK has not adopted the Euro as a currency or participated in the Schengen Agreement for immigration. When one of the world’s more politically powerful and economically stable countries refuses to fully participate in the EU, you have to wonder where the problem lies.
Instability in Greece seems to indicated that a continental-wide currency can pose significant problems. If Greece doesn’t clean up it’s act, then Germany and France may be on the line for bailing Greece out to protect the Euro. In times of economic growth, affluent countries may feel charitable and have no problem doing this, especially when it directly benefits their shared currency. Now, where governments are rightfully more concerned with bailing out their own economies, this seems less likely.
The Lisbon Treaty is supposed to give the EU a united diplomatic front to present to the rest of the world. France and Germany aren’t too excited about giving up their abilities to represent themselves diplomatically. How can the EU be taken seriously as an entity if it only has meaning within itself and not internationally?
When the world’s policy and economic elite gather Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum, much of the talk will be about the rise of a “G-2″ world where the U.S. and China are the most important players.
A growing number of European policymakers and analysts say the EU’s international influence may have peaked thanks to a combination of political divisions and poor long-term prospects for its economy.
It is no surprise to hear that China and the U.S. are two major players in the world. But it is a surprise that the 21st century may take a swing back toward a bipolar world or at least a multipolar world with two strong, opposing poles.
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Academics have been fretting about the EU losing importance for quite a long time already and are now pacified – the head cold is just now getting to the head – politicians. The project has been regarded as slightly unstable for a long time and they came up with Lisbon to try and correct this, though in its un-democratic mode of acceptance (and provisions, although it claims to try and bring more democracy and transparency) it has possibly sacrificed this very fragile balance that previously existed. The EU might have done better accepting creation of a fan group on Facebook and left it at that.
On the topic of Greece – poison in the pancakes, man! I really can’t wrap my head around how both politicians and businesspeople here are so adamant that the euro is our only path. It’s been tiringly over-publicized and the debate really has gone nowhere; people are just tired of hearing about it and thus indiferrently acquiescent. However the euro is something like the EU itself – you widen it too much and you risk the very prosperity and stability that has made it so appealing. High chance that EU heavy-weights will be all green-light about a bailout when the Greek government is still in turmoil, protests and riots are common in Athens and the country itself was only accepted into the union in order to prevent it from falling into the category of being a failed state!
I think some big ripples are going to be felt in 2010 throughout the EU, should be interesting to watch and in which to swim. Now that the Belgian PM is moving up to be president, who is going to hold that country together in one piece?
Thanks for the insightful comment. Especially considering that you live in a small EU nation about to adopt the Euro. It will be interesting to see how things play out with the Lisbon Treaty in full force. I’m not sure things will be dramatically different. So much of it depends on other nations recognizing the EU politicians. I don’t think Obama is going to call the EU president first if a disaster/crisis occurs somewhere in Europe.
Good point! The EU may have general regulations regulating what kinds of products may be imported/exported (i.e. no GMO’s from the US), but as for trade with member countries themselves, it is far from uniform. US interests still lie in Merkel, Sarkozy, Brown etc. – not what’s-her-name ex-Belgian PM who happens to wear a big EU flag on her hat now. Not to say I wouldn’t like a hat exactly like that. What do you think peoples’ responses would be in the US if you walked around with such apparel – a baseball hat with the EU flag on it in place of the US or Irish or whatever people find in fashion that week? Doubt most people would even recognize what it is, which goes to show…
I’ll keep you up to date on the euro progression here as it drudgingly does just that. They’re saying next year already (roughly planned for June 2011 I think) and many financial watchdogs have already given it a green light; when it comes down to it, a single veto from a euro area country can shut it down however. I just hope in the meantime we can do something big enough to piss everyone off like Iceland so maybe this won’t happen, regardless of Maastricht criteria. We’ll just hang out here with Finland and kick up our reindeer livestock populations.