Insurance Journal: EU Leaders Fiddle while Europe Burns

Insurance JournalEU Leaders Fiddle while Europe Burns

The citizens of the older members of the EU, particularly in Germany, France, the Netherlands and to some extent Italy, do not see further expansion as necessarily a good thing. They see their countries as subsidizing the poorer, newer entrants, who then cut their own taxes and use the money to build more modern facilities with cheaper labor costs that take jobs away from the subsidizers. If EU leaders don't address that concern, they will never get the voters to listen to anything else.

That fear in turn is linked to the ongoing debate - especially in France-over the "social model." In order to attract industry, help entrepreneurs and start cutting down unemployment, Europe's tax structure and labor market has to be made more flexible. This doesn't mean the EU has to emulate America's wholesale surrender to neo laissez-faire capitalism, which rewards shareholders and top executives at the expense of everybody else.

It does mean that changes are necessary, but asking the French to abandon their current network of social programs and services that they've won over the last 70 years is like asking the passengers in a crowded lifeboat to jump into the sea because there's a bigger boat coming along. No one will jump until they see the other boat. Unless the voters themselves see the necessity for change and what form it will take, they won't take a chance on losing what they have in the hope that their leaders know what they're doing. It's become obvious - in France at least and probably elsewhere in Europe - that the leaders don't know what they're doing, and that they have become too isolated for the people to trust.