Munchau: when did the European federalist dream fail? our answer here

Wolfgang Muchau is a European federalist, one who dreams of the United States of Europe. But he is also a political analyst honest enough to distinguish the "Dream" from the reality of the facts. In a post on his blog "EuroIntelligence" that we invite you to follow, he takes note of the training and the "European Dream". Here is an excerpt:

“When you fight for a cause that doesn't materialize, at what point do you recognize and admit defeat? There are some causes you may want to keep fighting for no matter what, like human rights or climate change. Does European integration fall into this category? For me it is not. My biggest area of ​​disagreement with my European federalist colleagues is not in what we think is desirable. What we disagree on is where the dividing line lies between realpolitik and wishful thinking.

A good example occurred this weekend. The fool who committed the crime of saying what everyone in the SPD thinks was Kay-Achim Schönbach. He was forced to step down as head of the German Navy for revealing to the world that Germany's natural ally is Russia.

Germany also plays an uncooperative game in the EU monetary union, through an economic model that relies on large savings surpluses. Whether the issue is economic or foreign policy, other member states have been reluctant to challenge Germany.

……

If only. I have come to the conclusion that this ship has sailed. Once this is understood, the consequences are far-reaching. If a proper economic union is the first best option, it does not logically follow that a dysfunctional economic union is the second best. Maybe you believe that economic union can still happen. This is fair enough. But if you don't, you have to ask yourself some pretty troubling questions. This is where I am. One of the questions is this: even if the European solution is optimal, is it possible that the national alternative is superior to a malfunctioning hybrid?

I ask the question in the knowledge that the greatest threat to European integration comes from the areas where it does badly. The single market and customs are successful. So are trade and competition policy. But the coordination of macroeconomic policies has been a persistent failure. And foreign and security policy is moving in the same direction . "

the Ukrainian crisis has broadly highlighted the shortcomings of this union, above all, as Muncha recalls, when a large portion of the states, first of all Germany, but secondly also Croatia, which is an appendix of the Teutonic nation, clearly sabotaging NATO's efforts not only in favor of Kiev, but also of the Baltic Republics. Now no one wants to "Die for Kiev", as no one wants to "Die for Danzig", but it is clear, indeed evident, that the German government acts autonomously against its European and NATO allies. Not only in the military strategic sector, where he seeks the obvious solution of a new Molotov Ribbentrop pact, but also in the energy sector, where he sabotages Italy and France, or in the industrial sector,

Europe could not be successful because it was born not from the true desire for union, but from divergent internal political needs:

• Germany in 1992 wanted to have its own unification accepted and restart on its imperial path;
• France wanted to remain economically linked to Germany, but by containing it;
• Italy sought on the one hand an acceptance on the one hand, and on the other an instrument of external constraint and repression to appease the demands of the poorer social classes.

The project was worm-eaten from the start, it could only collapse. We add a wrong currency, without the provision of countercyclical measures, but only pro-cyclical, and we had the perfect mix. It took a massive information and political crackdown to get to today, but after Brexit a lot has changed and the knots are about to come to a head.

---

---

The Munchau article: when did the European federalist dream fail? our answer here comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

---

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/munchau-quando-e-fallito-il-sogno-federalista-europeo-la-nostra-risposta-qui/ on Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:00:54 +0000.