- Critics say the problem stems from a lack of centralised control over national fiscal policies, which today are jealously guarded areas of sovereignty.
- In 2011 Delors said the crisis facing the euro required member states either to accept greater economic cooperation or a transfer of more national powers to the European Union's centre.
The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say that this was their plan all along.
Meanwhile, the misanthropist is trying to decide if less sovereignty would be a good or bad thing.
I think I would agree that this probably should have been the next obvious step in their plan which is coming decades too late in implementation. I read an article somewhere that the Optimum Currency Area model (eg. the EU) is supposed to have both monetary and fiscal union to work as it theoretically should. However, I can't even begin to imagine how fiscal union like this is gonna happen in such a culturally and politically diverse continent like Europe. And if they were supposed to do it all along, why so late? The United States is supposed to be an example of the OCA thing working, but Europe is a different beast entirely. I'm no expert, but I think the EU isn't looking too hot for the future.
This feels a little like an outrider comment, designed to get the eurozone ready for some tighter fiscal restrictions - though not necessarily a full blown centrally controlled fiscal budget with allocations to national governments. It could also be seen as an attempt to flush out countries that perhaps object to Germany's dominance over euro decisions. A democratic parliament after all will dilute the power of finance in favour of popular mandate. Could Hollande be serious? I doubt it. There is no European political identity (Though it could be argued there were some common European Values at least). If there was then the EU parliament would have multi-national parties rather than affiliations of national parties. Instead the model of Europe is a forum for countries to represent their nation's interest no matter how mutually beneficial the outcome. There may be a chicken and egg effect here, but if even Belgium can't forge a common national identity without splitting itself up into ethnic parliaments - what hope is there for the Portuguese and the Estonians to vote for the same parties?
It would never work, and I doubt many EU countries would be up for having even less sovereignty. I think the experiment of a shared currency hasn't gone really well - i still think the EU as an entity is a good idea for a variety of reasons, but a currency union is perhaps unnecessary.
The greatest problem that I see in Europe is that there are no leaders. I don't hear of any vision for the future of Europe. What's worse is that no national politician can take that role, as each country has a different language. From my experience in the Czech Rep., the European Parliament is a foreign entity, and few people know who to vote for in Euro elections. I agree that there needs to be a more organized fiscal policy, but I just don't see how it can happen without a complete loss of sovereignty by the member states. Europe is facing a crisis of democracy right now and we need bold leaders to take rally the European spirit if the EU is to continue....but I just don't see it happening.