“Today’s Summit runs the risk of leading European down a draconian path of hawkish surveillance, unrealistic limits and the constant threat of expulsion. It is a gross parody of European Solidarity”.
He continued; “Economic Governance can’t be achieved through punishment. If your village is about to be flooded, you don’t start arguing about who has the right to vote on the repair bill, who should be exiled for causing the flood – you concentrate on stopping the flooding, because in the end, it’s your village”.
Euro-zone leaders, lead by Merkel and Sarkozy, have been squabbling and delaying for four months now. There has been too much Nation-State pontificating and not enough European coordination.
There are four steps that the Euro-zone members should put on the table tonight:
- Putting a mosquito net between weakened Euro-zone members and speculators
- Identifying new sources of funding such as a Robin Hood Tax
- Introducing new Green Investment programmes with stronger members taking the lead
- Initiating a mature, long-term discussion about European Fiscal Co-Ordination, not only for debt reduction but for growth.
“For four months there has been Nation-State destructive posturing. The risk is that these set-piece events are like a game of Russian Roulette – unless we stop playing this game there will be very undesirable consequences”. concluded Mr. Rasmussen.
For further information please contact Brian Synnott on +32 474 98 96 75 (brian.synnott@pes.org)
