The Mission:
Fragmentation or enlargement? Two contradictory questions for the EU in 2009. A gloomy prediction of the current global economic crisis, not one I’d like to entertain myself, is that the European Union might fragment under the pressure from the markets.
The current situation:
The economy is in meltdown. Investment bankers the world over have been gambling on the future. And have lost. But nobody realized it was going to happen. Apparently. A lot of people will be considering their options. Taking stock.
For the UK, there is no manufacturing industry, which means that there aren’t any jobs. And it seems there never was really any money. Savers have been cheated, consumerism has evaporated having knock-on effects around the globe, and the Pound is following the Dollar into oblivion. I dread to think what exchange-rates will be traveling in the Euro-zone.
The bubble has burst.
The, so called, wildcat strikes here were inevitable. Our membership of the European Union means European workers are entitled to work here. Total, the company at the centre of the row, have decided to employ Italian workers because they can pay them less and give them fewer rights using a loophole found in European legislation.
Emphasis in the media has been on the “foreign workers” and the “European Union loophole”. Not questioning why the company decided to go ahead and use the loophole. Or asking why they felt they could treat the Italian workers unfairly. Or asking where are the jobs for any workers- where is the answer to this crisis?
The situation was not helped by Gordon Brown being quoted as saying, “we need to create British jobs for British people.” Ashamedly I think that no one is standing up to the xenophobia that is manifesting.
The British National Party here in the UK has caught on to this sentiment and is aiming to cash in on this crisis to gain votes. They have been touring a “truth truck” around the country. Catchy. Nationalism is known to increase in dire economic circumstances.
People are losing their jobs Europe-wide with popular unrest in Greece, Latvia, Iceland and France.
The Republic of Ireland rejected the Lisbon treaty in 2008, although some commentators argue various parties were seizing on the lack of knowledge of the voters, not the issues. The EU will find it difficult to move forward without some kind of consolidation. They are set to have another referendum to come up with the ‘right’ result in October.
But it is not all doom and gloom! Enlargement plans have also been reported. Iceland, whose Government crumbled last week, has expressed a keen interest in joining. At odds with the Eurosceptic scenes in Britain. Their entry is likely to be fast-tracked with Croatia as they like doing it in twos.
So far the question of Turkey has remained unanswered. Except for the divisive stance made by the Turkish Prime Minster Recap Tayyip Erdogan when he left the, much subdued, Davos meeting during the discussion of Gaza.
So why to some is Europe desirable and to others, a commodity, or a nuisance? Winston Churchill called for a united Europe. This is what has happened so far with his ambition.
Ultimately the United States were allowed to take on the role as the world superpower. We’ve woken up, at it appears the world has been answering to a questionable regime, and they have an economic stranglehold.
Davos could have been a chance for the EU to come out with a huge Pan-European Secret Plan. Nothing sinister, just some brilliant plan they’d been working on as they’d seen the whole system coming to its knees. They didn’t.
And so the questions continue; is the European Union’s ability to work effectively to achieve something like this a priority for the future? Is it even possible?
The plan:
The plan is, for me, simple. The British Government is planning to pump more money into banks they have already tried to bail out. The failing businesses whose employees have committed financial atrocities, often knowingly, against the people of the world.
Surely their conduct is worthy of a formal criminal enquiry?
They intend upon “getting the banks lending again” to give people more credit to get them spending, so people can get mortgages to buy properties.
All sound a bit too familiar? They are trying to re-prop up this failing system, because it is the only system they know. Capitalism, corporate Capitalism, the free markets and consumerism are faltering. It is like proving to them that God doesn’t exist.
Ideally, they would honour lenders their money where possible. And the banks that survive, survive.
The leftover money (I haven’t done the sums but I’m depending on this working) will be used to fund research. Yes, fund it. It will depend upon investment, but we haven’t left ourselves many options. We will fund research into climate change, new technologies and develop medicines.
We have intelligent, educated graduates who will be clambering against joining the unemployment queues. And many other people sitting on their fortunes.
Those people that are being left jobless in the manual professions could begin Pan-European public works projects to improve infrastructure before improving other things with the new technologies created. We could become a cosmopolitan masterpiece.
What I learned from the European Journalism Council is that there are other young people, with ideas and knowledge just waiting for something like this. It is an ideal, but what should we strive for if not for the ideal?
Diplomacy could be the new black. Governments will become meaningful and streamlined. It will be about negotiation, compromise and legitimacy.
This is what Europe has been waiting for. A chance to come into its own.
The UK isn’t in the Euro, and there doesn’t seem to be any debate in the public sphere that we might join. I say, where do we want to go from here?
An isolated, miserable island. Probably an international joke, the embarrassed divorcee emerging from a ridiculous Anglo-American marriage to a Corporate Capitalist machine, with only a weak hold on what could give Great Britain its second coming.
I’m in!
(12 votes, average: 2.92 out of 5)
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Just a couple of other thoughts…
How about allowing pension scheme contributors to invest in residential property rather just commercial? To stop properties laying empty.
Or lower national insurance, harming employers, so they don’t have to let staff go?