Jean Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, who chaired a group of
Euro-zone finance ministers at the height of the financial crisis, claimed that
elections in
Italy and Greece brought "national resentments to the surface,
which we'd believed had gone away".
He said that he had been appalled by protesters' banners in Greece which
showed Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, in Nazi uniform.
Mr Juncker said in an interview with the magazine Der Spiegel:
"Anyone who believes that the eternal question of war and peace in Europe is no
longer there risks being deeply mistaken.
"The demons have not gone away – they're only sleeping, as the wars in Bosnia
and Kosovo showed. I am struck by how much conditions in Europe in 2013 are
similar those of 100 years ago."
The way in which some political figures in Germany had been criticised in
Greece has left "deep wounds" Mr Juncker said. He said the Italian election was
also "excessively hostile to Germany and therefore anti-European". Mr Juncker, who chaired the Euro Group from 2005 until he stepped down in
January this year, said that he saw parallels with 1913. "In 1913 many believed that there would be no more war in Europe. The great
powers of the continent were so closely inter-twined economically that the view
was widespread that they could no longer have military confrontations," he said.
Mr Juncker also claimed that the only way for Europe to continue to wield
global influence in future was through being united. The governments of Germany,
France and Britain all knew that the only way their voice could be heard
internationally was "through the megaphone of the EU," he said.
4 comments:
Airlines which cancel flights will have to book passengers on rival carriers if they cannot offer one of their own within 12 hours, under a new package of EU consumer measures to be unveiled.
the US is bankrupt and Britain is totally and utterlybankrupt. http://www.snouts-in-the-troug... There is no recession, just an acceleration in the rate of the West's decline as we can no longer support an economic system in which more than half the population expect to receive more in benefits that they'll ever pay in taxes. If we are to survive, we need to slash entitlements and the numbers receiving entitlements. At the moment both entitlements and the numbers getting them are increasing and next year's arrival of over a million Romanians and Bulgarians will cost us over £30bn in housing, education, healthcare, policing and benefits - that's £30bn we don't have. And what can our politicians do? Nothing as we have handed over control of our borders and benefits system to Brussels
the US is bankrupt and Britain is totally and utterlybankrupt. http://www.snouts-in-the-troug... There is no recession, just an acceleration in the rate of the West's decline as we can no longer support an economic system in which more than half the population expect to receive more in benefits that they'll ever pay in taxes. If we are to survive, we need to slash entitlements and the numbers receiving entitlements. At the moment both entitlements and the numbers getting them are increasing and next year's arrival of over a million Romanians and Bulgarians will cost us over £30bn in housing, education, healthcare, policing and benefits - that's £30bn we don't have. And what can our politicians do? Nothing as we have handed over control of our borders and benefits system to Brussels
Two major problems are the level of benefit payments - housing benefit having doubled under Labour as they brought in 3 million immigrants who could not afford their own housing, and Britain's inability to increase exports. Exporters must compete with hidden subsidy Chinese exports (which increased by 20%+ in January). With consumption flatlining in Britain because of high taxes, increases in exports were the hoped for salvation. Britain cannot do anything about Chinese exports because it is in the EU, and the Germans do not wish to get tough with the Chinese because they sell many cars in China, and have a trade surplus.
The picture is not good, and a depreciating currency is not going to help much because it also kills consumption through higher energy prices. Perhaps now Cameron may wish he had declined to form a government in 2010, and let Labour take the flack for the mess they created.
Post a Comment