The European Union’s leaders, Germany and France, decided Oct. 30 to try to change the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. This is a highly charged and divisive move. While the Germans and French want important changes, a large number of the other 25 members do not. The Irish legally can’t agree to any substantial change in their adherence to the EU without a referendum, which frightens the rest as opening Pandora’s box.
Angela Merkel’s Germany insists on change because of the euro zone debt problem, which has the German electorate highly upset—for bad reasons. This unrest threatens Chancellor Merkel’s center-right governing coalition.
The public, and many among Germany’s political elite, are upset because of what the international press insists upon describing as the EU (or as the Germans like better to say, the German) “bailout” of Greece from its debt crisis earlier this year. The Germans want a permanent EU bailout fund that will spare them from again being called on to solve future EU member failures. They may also want—the details of their demands remain unclear, probably even to Germans—a permanent institutional arrangement for debt restructuring or rescheduling, with rules and automatic punishment for sinners.
Note EU-Digest: It is essential for the economic well being of the EU and the EURO that this French German proposal gets accepted.
For more: William Pfaff: Why the Rest of Europe Isn’t Happy With France and Germany - Truthdig
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