As Greece and Italy prepare to swear in new, unelected, prime ministers, has the EU's democratic dream been forgotten?
"There is a strong indication that the ball game has changed" in European politics, eurosceptic Conservative MP Bill Cash told John Humphrys, with Germany starting to flex it's political muscles.
There had been a "conglomeration of power" in the leading eurozone countries, he said, with "probably illegal" leadership summits deciding the fate of the whole region.
"This is an undemocratic system... this is a failed project," he said.
But Roland Rudd, chairman of Business for New Europe, said that the eurozone crisis was "a failure of policy not democracy".
"There's no plot hatched in Berlin or Brussels," he argued. The people of Europe did not want to see their economy collapse, and the leaders "are not going to allow this to happen".
"The will of the people is being implemented now in Greece and Italy," he said. #democracy #eu #eurozone
"There is a strong indication that the ball game has changed" in European politics, eurosceptic Conservative MP Bill Cash told John Humphrys, with Germany starting to flex it's political muscles.
There had been a "conglomeration of power" in the leading eurozone countries, he said, with "probably illegal" leadership summits deciding the fate of the whole region.
"This is an undemocratic system... this is a failed project," he said.
But Roland Rudd, chairman of Business for New Europe, said that the eurozone crisis was "a failure of policy not democracy".
"There's no plot hatched in Berlin or Brussels," he argued. The people of Europe did not want to see their economy collapse, and the leaders "are not going to allow this to happen".
"The will of the people is being implemented now in Greece and Italy," he said. #democracy #eu #eurozone
over 1 year ago
....well as a german, I would say that the terminology "german hegemony" is a very hard word.
It is not germanys aim to install or support a undemocratic system via the eurozone. I want to remind, that the US was almost bancrupt this summer 2011. But they changed their mind, and are printing more Dollars, which means that nobody wants to be the first be bancrupt. This is the game at the moment. And neither the one of the countries of the eurozone wants to be bancrupt also.
In a world where many western countries are facing government bancruptcy, nobody wants to be the first one, to get bancrupt. Why? Well, it is obvious that those who are the first, will remain in the longest period of recession or depression, afterwards. And those countries, which are the last to be bancrupt, will have the shortest period of time of recession /depression. This is the game.
If Greece is deciding to remain in the eurozone, we have to face the consequences. All together. And it is just normal, if Germany has to pay a big part of this debt-cake, we want to be sure that this help will help the greek as a whole.
But we have seen that the problem was caused since the sub-prime crisis. And now we are still facing the consequences the failures of bancing investments. Why should the taxpayers in germany in special, or the taxpayers in the eurozone in general pay for these banking faillures?
We have seen that the first payments to the Greece were not seen in the pockets of the government. This money was going into the pockets of banks in whole europe and espacially to a greek banking billionaire, and from him ride away to a swiss bank-account.
When a german politician says, that now "we speak in Europe german", he was especially in Great Britain misunderstood. He should be meant that the way we solve the financial problem should be based at least on german standards, or french standards, or english standards. The common sense of solving these financial problems, which are not caused by a "german economic hegemony", should be solved with all countries /partners in the eurozone. Germany is encouraging to participate in solving these problems all eurozone-countries together.
But if is in need to solve these problems by leading with germany as the "front"-country, then germany will do this. To bring the solution to a good end, for all of us.
To Great Britain i would like to point out, that you are a great nation, and that germany and great britain have much more in common than some minorities in both countries might think. Great Britain used to have a strong industry in the past. But what has happened with it? Britain has a lack of productivity in industrial production. Personally I want to encourage Britain's people to bring their ingenuity back into the eurozone production. It is my personal belief, that Britain's Economy is too much depending on the financial economic resources from the London Stock Exchange.
As a german i would say that, the germany of today is not comparable with the germany of 1933. And i want to encourage both countries to work together. So many things to loose on both sides, but we could make a big win-win situation for all.
nice hello from a nice "kraut" ;-)
bubblenet65 over 1 year ago