It was just two days ago, when German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged European Union leaders to “address popular dissatisfaction.” He added
“I said before the referendum that regardless of how the vote in Britain pans out we cannot simply continue as before in Europe.”
As a consequence Schaeuble came up with his new vision apparently aiming to address popular dissatisfaction. But it looks as if the German FinMin got only half of the Brexit message: discontent with Brussels in general and the EU and the EU Commission in particular. In plain language: he understood what he wanted to understand – because he always despised any oh so tiny effort by Jean-Claude Juncker to come to meet Greece in negotiations with lenders in 2015. He also disagree with EC’s last year decision to give France two more years to adhere to budget rules.
And there goes Schaeuble with his post-Brexit reform plan for the European Union:
“stricter budget rules for European Union states and a downsized European Commission”
German daily Handelsblatt reports on Wednesday about Schaeuble’s vision as drafted by aides for the German Finance Minister.
The plan for Schaeuble, whose austere approach to public finances has resulted in a balanced budget in Germany for the first time since 1969, will almost certainly face resistance from France and Italy, who prefer borrowing to stimulate their economies.
“Member states should not be discharged from their responsibilities to ensure stable budgets and growth-friendly structural reforms,” Handelsblatt quoted the German experts as saying in the reform proposals.
The paper also floats the idea of an independent body of experts to oversee implementation of EU budget rules.
One suggestion in the plan was to downsize the European Commission, which has faced criticism for its extensive bureaucracy ( full story Reuters)
The Handelsblatt report has not been dismissed by the German Finance Ministry.
Downsizing EC Commission could be also interpreted as a Schaeuble attempt to counterbalance the increasing power of anti-migration AfD in his own country and escape EC rules and regulations on migration.
It is just KTG’s interpretation taking into consideration that Wolfgang Schaeuble would do literally nothing if it would not bring financial and political gains to Germany and his conservative party CDU.
PS Keep up the good work with more and stricter austerity till all European citizens are exterminated (:p)
Main reason for this is his anti-social-democrats partner in government who wanna be different but don’t see that their generously created “minimum wage” isn’t for all people, so all the long-time unemployed (after reaching the age of 58 also leaving any statistics) who are excluded might vote wrong.
At the “founding members meeting” (opposed by Merkel, btw) were also all anti-social-creeps I think… and main theme was 50% unemployed youth kills voters…