At a Snail’s Pace
June 21, 2012 Print
AICGS Trustee John Kornblum recently published a piece in the Handelsblatt examining Europe’s response to the ongoing crisis surrounding the monetary union. According the Mr. Kornblum, while European leaders like to point to their success in combating the crisis – a task that has become commonplace on the European agenda – they have tended to take far too long to bring about such actions in today’s globalized economy. Moving forward, will Europeans be able to act in a timely, organized manner that allows their monetary union to survive and succeed in today’s world?
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A smart comment.
Insisting, as many European leaders do, that the EU integration “must move forward to avert another war” only alianates the already skeptical electorate. What war? Who against whom? Europe barely has appetite for peacekeeping missions, let alone fighting offensively.
The EU struggles to find a common ground to solve the crisis, as John Kornblum demonstrates. Perhaps the price to pay for continued goodwill among Europeans is to scale down the intregration intensity to a level commensurate with popular support. It could mean dismantling the EMU, it could mean getting rid of the Parliament while at the same time opening up the still partly closed markets to capital allocation and cross-border trade in services. These will surely contribute to faster economic growth. Once incomes rebound, upward-moving sentiment toward the EU is bound to follow. As Bill Clinton would say, “it’s economics, stupid”.