The four Musketeers, Barroso (EC), van Rompuy (EC), Juncker (Eurogroup)and Draghi (ECB) are reportedly working on a …secret plan to save the euro zone from the crisis. The ambition plan that will be implemented first to EZ member countries foresees among others more EU control over national budgets, a “bank union”, fiscal harmonisation, reform of social welfare programmes. A “Europe of two speeds” won’t be excluded. This reminds me of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s plan in the early 1990’s…
According to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, according to which Brussels was secretly developing a plan for a new European Union. This plan should map the EU’s development in the next 5 to 10 years and it does not exclude the possibility of the union dissolving to “Europe on two speeds”.
European Commission President Jose Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Euro Group President Jean-Claude Juncker and ECB President Mario Draghi are the leaders responsible for the drafting of the new concept. Sources familiar with the project claim it was really revolutionary and would reform the EU from top to bottom, if all 27 member states agree with it. One of the four main points of the plan, concerning structural reforms, is supported by all countries, as it involves reforming EU social systems and harmonising the internal market. One of the most problematic points, on the other hand, concerns the so-called “bank union” proposed by Mr Draghi. (Focus news)
The plan is to be presented at an EU summit in late June, the report said.
Under global pressure to put an end to the turmoil rocking financial markets and creating deep economic uncertainty, the leaders want to point the way toward a lasting solution, an unnamed high-ranking EU official told the newspaper.
“Around the world – in America and Asia – we are asked, ‘Where do you want to go?'” the official said. “After two years of crisis, it is finally time to provide an answer.”
The proposals being considered would include European institutions having more power over national budgets; a European supervisory body for the banking sector with new powers; harmonised fiscal, tax, foreign and security policies; and reform of social welfare programmes.
The report said some of the changes could initially apply just to the 17-nation eurozone and not the 27-member European Union as a whole.
Barroso pleaded on Wednesday for a tighter eurozone union to avoid “financial disintegration,” including “a banking union with integrated financial supervision and single deposit guarantee scheme.” (AFP)
So what do we have here? An official admission that the Euro Zone has failed, missed its original target and is unable to cope with problematic issues. A reform is under way. However, do European citizens want a more centralized exercise of power? Who will control the controllers?New dilemmas will be put in front of us and one day we will have to decide upon.
a Welt am Sonntag report in German HERE
Do European citizens want a more centralized exercise of power?
I don’t think so, no more power to a failed political experiment.
No. It’s the final outcome of a planned “beneficial crisis”. They knew this would happen eventually and would enable them to enact the final step to their dictatorship.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9307112/The-EUs-beneficial-crisis-has-spun-out-of-control.html
No wonder they are so delighted with the result of the Irish “referendum”. What the Irish were told they were voting on was in fact totally immaterial and already fact. What they weren’t told they were voting on (the small print) is that because of a clause in the Treaty the Irish Government does now not need a referendum anymore before ratifying any new treaty or amendment to an existing treaty, as was the case until last Thursday. The only brake that was left to keep at least the pretence of democracy going in the EU was removed under false pretences, and cannot, according to the same referendum, be challenged in court. Now watch things change, but not for the better (at least not for Joe Soap)…
Not wasting much time, are they?
http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2012/06/04/merkel-barroso-to-give-press-conference-at-7-00-pm-in-berlin/
A joint Barroso-Merkel press conference in Berlin at 7 this evening, with ” a European Banking Union” being part of the briefing…
very good, thank you.
I’m guessing that the “reform” of social welfare programmes actually means “destruction”.
Barroso pleaded on Wednesday for a tighter eurozone union to avoid “financial disintegration,” including “a banking union with integrated financial supervision and single deposit guarantee scheme.”
Hmmm seems like he’s saying that the banksters’ pockets are in danger of emptying! Poor things!
love and support your sponsor, no matter what lol
It has already started. The Irish are reviewing a monthly payment of 130€ to anybody who stays at home and cares for a family member themselves, instead of lamping the state with that burden of care (which it by their constitution has). And no bonus points for guessing which way that review will go. the target is “0”…
I will never understand why the Irish have the lead in supporting these policies. Any link, I want to know more about it as it will reach Greece one day (see: socal welfare destruction oops! reform)
BTW: 130 euro (per month I assume) does not cover 1/100 of the burden of the care at home)
No, it is not. If this care would have to be provided by the state, it would cost around 200,000€ per annum, per child…
But the 130€ is not the real target. In the minefield of Irish social law, somewhere it is stated that if a parent of an autistic child qualifies for the 130€ a month, that parent alos qualifies for a social grant of 1,700€ a year, called the “respite grant”. This is intended to provide these parents with assistance towards bringing in an outside carer for a week-end or so, and take a break from what cannot be described other than a daunting task of caring for an autistic child.
So, cutting the 130€ automatically cuts the 1,700€ grant as well. And to really put the booth in, whether a child is autistic or not is decided by a doctor, but whether the chihld is “autistic enough” to award the social payments is decided by officials from the same department that is now cutting these payments. Meanwhile, all the “special needs assistants” (teachers with the necessary training to assist other teachers with autistic children in the class) have also been made unemployed. Just a snapshot of how other governments are delaing with “the crisis”. There too, ordinary people pay the price, while the same government is contemplating giving permission to banks to start paying “performance bonusses” to their managers again. If anybody ever deserved a performance bonus, it surely is the parent of an autistic child who looks after that child him/herself. It most certainly is not a bank manager attached to bailout banks…
I see. and it is not a surprise either. Everywhere the IMF took control the health sector had to be sacrificed first. As if indebted states can avoid to take care of the needy.
It’s an official admission that the Eurozone has become too heterogenous to work efficiently, that some of the memberstates don’t really belong there and provide nothing but headaches and negative headlines, and that the currency union has to become “tighter” = smaller. This view may lead to improvements for the Eurozone, but probably not for Greece, which has shown to be too slow to keep up with the others (note the talk about a “Europe of two different velocities”!
If they want us ( and the rest of the EU South – as the crisis is not a solely Greek problem but a systemic one then it cannot solve problems) they could very wel ‘buy’ our exit. How about that?
That exit will already be costly enough for the Eurozone (but in the medium run still cheaper than the status quo of throwing money into a black hole). Don’t expect any additional parting gift. You folks can fund your expenses with your new Drachmes after that. That’s the whole point. A clean break and the chance for a new start for both sides.
The alternative is of course also nice. Now that they have tested the ATMs etc. for the Drachma, and Drachma clauses have been built in to thier contracts, Greece could of course print a few billion Drachma extra, and do exactly as the fear merchants say Greece will do. When the time is right, replace all Euro with Drachma at a 1:1 exchange rate, and pay the EU/ECB/IMF off in Drachma, and then devalue…:)
Afaik the rescue plan contract includes the point that the debt has to be paid back in Euros, Epi. But that doesn’t matter much, since Greece won’t be able to do so anyway. What you propose would be a onesided kind of haircut, and that’s not much better than a default. What would be the upside to it, since the annoyed creditors would stop any additional payments anyway? That Greece could pretend that it paid back the debt? That looks like a rather useless cosmetic measure to me.
:-/
Btw, your plan would seriously (because of the large sums involved) increase the probably inevitable devaluation of the New Drachma (and thus, the inflation in Greece). This would increase the price of exports, most importantly oil. So, it isn’t as if your plan would cost only the paper worth of the banknotes, the Greek people would have to pay for that. Not a good idea, imho. Better a real default and a clean new start.
Laughter is great medicine. Looks like you need a mega dose, multiple times a day. And it’s free, even in Drachma land…
I think it’s high time I start working on a comedy script with lots of surreal components.
pop-up rabbits in psychedelic colours and stuff?
all this. my favorite Nowhere Man in Yellow Submarine. and I don’t need to take any stuff to write my script.
Bring it on, I always loved Alice in Wonderland to. And The Crock of Gold, and The adventures of Fursey… We’re going to need all this and more if we want to stay sane in this mad world 🙂
I believe Tim Burton could film my “Greek in Mad-Houseland” script
Excellent choice! Great director, and he’ll prolly love this crazy story. Already got a working title for the script? How about “My Big Fat Greek Haircut”?
😀
hm… NO! too wide spread. needs to be original. I think I should make a separate post and ask for ideas 🙂
One landed in the Cookoo’s nest?
Epi, are you aware that in Germany the foreclosure agent (aka bailiff or marshall) sticks a “cuckoo” (actually, it used to be a stamp with an eagle on it) on confiscated property?
🙂
I am, and they seem to have one huge cuckoo ready to cover the whole of Europe. Just a matter of time…