European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker isn’t a nationalist populist, but he devoted his State of the European Union address on Wednesday to the defense of “European sovereignty.” This means, among other things, using the euro to challenge the U.S. dollar’s global dominance, particularly in an era of growing American unilateralism.
As anticipated Brexit has provided a spur to European integration: from the EU point of view Brexit has been a positive and necessary step. This is also timely in the light of the approaching financial crisis. The British government will be hoping to turn it into an opportunity to break up Europe, hence their seemingly bizarre conduct of the negotiations. We shall see.
Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have thrown their weight behind the creation of a new powerful eurozone finance minister post that would oversee economic policy across the bloc.
The present pause in the march towards the creation of the new political European entity Euroland, consequence of the approaching European elections, which virtually put the entire communitarian system on stand-by, enable us to dedicate this lead article of our April newsletter to an abnormality in the handling of the evolution of Euroland : How is it possible that a member states of the European Union, which is not a member of the Eurozone, has such a disproportionate clout on the institutions where the coming of age of Euroland is being masterminded and prepared?
GEAB N°83: Global systemic crisis – The Ukrainian crisis, the ultimate test of Europeans’ ability to build their political union to take control of their common destiny
This crisis is well and truly a test of national leaders’ ability to grasp the tools of independence, power and peace that their fathers (the generations of politicians which ruled right until the end of the 80s basically) have put at their disposal, this united and institutionalized Europe which only remains to be put under political control.…
Clearly we now have movement in Europe with the perspectives of the sidelining of the Lisbon Treaty and a some form of sovereign democracy within the core Euroland. At the same time Michel Barnier’s banking union promises to curb financier power in the eurozone and end the bailouts.
Un collectif d’économistes et de politologues, dont Thomas Piketty ou Pierre Rosanvallon, appelle à de profondes réformes démocratiques et notamment à la création d’une chambre parlementaire de la zone euro.
Certains considèrent la zone euro comme le centre névralgique de l’UE, d’autres souhaitent qu’un Parlement propre lui soit dédié. Selon le Laboratoire Européen d’Anticipation Politique, la priorité serait d’inviter les citoyens à réfléchir au sujet.
Depuis quelques mois, les institutions européennes ainsi que l’Allemagne poussent à une sérieuse réforme des Traités. Un objectif: avancer vers plus de fédéralisme.
En France, le gouvernement se montre très frileux à l’idée de réouvrir la fracture de 2005.