A move toward fiscal and political integration is the price that Europe must pay to maintain its unity and global relevance. The alternative is inconsistent – if not arbitrary – enforcement of the current rules, inducing divisiveness among member states, and eventual fragmentation.
ATHENS – Will Greece’s troubles destroy Europe’s currency union, or reveal how it should be saved? The recent controversial bailout deal – likened by some to the 1919 Versailles Treaty, with Greece in the role of Germany – offers the latest twist in the eurozone’s existential saga. The deal has caused a split in Syriza, Greece’s leftist governing party; opened a rift between Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and her uncompromisingly tough finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble; and spurred an effort by France to reassert itself within the Franco-German axis that has always been the “motor” of European integration.
ATHENS – Will Greece’s troubles destroy Europe’s currency union, or reveal how it should be saved? The recent controversial bailout deal – likened by some to the 1919 Versailles Treaty, with Greece in the role of Germany – offers the latest twist in the eurozone’s existential saga. The deal has caused a split in Syriza, Greece’s leftist governing party; opened a rift between Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and her uncompromisingly tough finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble; and spurred an effort by France to reassert itself within the Franco-German axis that has always been the “motor” of European integration.