European Unity: After Paris: Unify Fights Against Austerity/Climate Change - by Asbjørn Wahl

The Climate Summit in Paris has once again reminded us of how vulnerable we are on planet earth. However, humanity is faced with a number of deep and challenging crises: economic, social, political, over food – and, of course, over climate change, which is threatening the very existence of millions of people. These crises have many of the same root causes, going to the core of our economic system.

Strong vested interests are involved. It is thus an interest-based struggle we are facing. All over the world, people are organising and fighting against the effects of the crises. Trade unions are heavily involved in many of these struggles, and so are many other movements – single-issue as well as broader social movements.

Increasingly, our entire social model, the way we produce and consume, is under question. The way out of these crises requires a system change and this can only be achieved if we are able considerably to shift the balance of power in society. This leaves us with the challenge of unifying movements and continuing struggles – particularly to bring anti-austerity together with the struggle against climate change.

Read more: After Paris: Unify Fights Against Austerity/Climate Change

Britain: Nick Clegg’s speech on Europe: "Richer, stronger, safer, greener"

"I am a pro-European – that is no great revelation, I know. But sometimes you need to say it, clearly and unambiguously.

The isolationist forces in Britain are on the rise – UKIP on the doorstep; Conservative politicians at their conference; familiar headlines in some of our newspapers each placing Britain’s ills firmly at Brussels’ door: too much immigration, too much crime, too much red tape. And every time Europe is back in the spotlight, their hostility towards it – this negative reaction to all things continental – drowns out the other voices in this debate.

Pro-Europeans have to take some responsibility for that. The moderate and rational voices have been too quiet up until now. But we cannot afford that silence anymore. We are no longer asking if Britain will have a referendum on continued membership, we are asking when Britain will have a referendum on continued membership.

The parties differ on the timing. The Conservative party want one in 2017, regardless of what’s happening in Europe at that time: it’s a date chosen for internal party management as much as anything else. The Liberal Democrats believe it will be far better to have the referendum when a serious change to Europe’s rules, affecting the UK, next arises. But we all agree that it will happen at some point or another."

Click here for the complete speech: In Full: Nick Clegg’s speech on Europe: Richer, stronger, safer, greener

European Unity ? - EU Summit Reveals a Paralyzed Continent

VEN ZE DREM VIL FINALI COM TRU ?

A review of the most recent EU-Summits by the German Magazine Der Spiegel  shows some disturbing developments whereby national interests seem to prevail over the common good.

"The haggling is in full swing at this hour -- North against South, rich countries against poor ones, German Chancellor Angela Merkel against French President François Hollande. They're stuck on a word, one that would normally have a beautiful, positive sound: common. The word "common" is dividing Europe. This is what it has come to in this night of hard-fought negotiations.

For more than six hours now, the leaders of the European Union have been meeting in Brussels to discuss the future. They are here to agree on a document, and according to item 12 of that paper, there is to be a "common backstop" for the new banking union, a sort of shared resolution fund for worst-case scenarios. Germany wants the word "common" deleted. So do Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.

France wants to keep the word in the document, as do Italy, Spain and Portugal. The northern countries are afraid that they'll be asked to pay even more than they already do, while the south is hoping for more shared responsibility in the crisis. The dispute continues for three-quarters of an hour. The northern countries win the fight and the word "common" is stricken from the closing statement of the most recent EU summit."

This happened on Dec. 13 and 14, during a meeting of the European Council, the powerful EU body consisting of all 27 heads of state and government. They meet behind closed doors, and not even their closest staff members are allowed to attend. During these discussions, secrecy is normally paramount. But as of the last one, that no longer applies.

As to the Van Rompuy's proposal for deeper political integration - "Most of it is science fiction," German State Secretary Link says dismissively at the luncheon in Brussels, referring to the first Van Rompuy document.

At a December 17 meeting in the headquarters of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party Mrs Merkel  reports that she under the impression that Hollande is trying to obstruct everything she proposes between now and the German parliamentary election. Hollande currently has more allies than she does, she says, which is why cooperation isn't quite working yet. But she's doing her best to gather more allies for Germany, she adds.

Der Spiegel concludes: "It sounds a little like the days when there were still wars in Europe."

Read more: EU Summit Reveals a Paralyzed Continent - SPIEGEL ONLINE

" Europe is an economic giant, a political dwarf, and a military worm" - Mark Eyskens: by Craig Willy

The above words were pronounced by Belgium’s then-Foreign Minister on the eve of 1991 Gulf War to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. The often-cited bon mot, two decades on, still rings true. But while militarily the European Union is likely remain marginal in the years to come, there are indications it will become something like a “political giant”.

The trouble with the EU (and before that the Communities) – the idea that it could have a coherent policy or even be a world power – has always been that it is effectively a “vetocracy”. A system where decisions of any significance must be taken unanimously means reform and good government are almost impossible. If the status quo suits just one representative’s constituents enough, then no change is possible. This is the single most important reason for the EU’s impotence in world affairs.But the EU, as we’ve seen, will in many areas likely become as “federal-majoritarian” as the United States of America, minus (very significantly) the budget.

The European Superstate may even, in fact, function better than the very minoritarian and viciously partisan American political system of today.

National vetoes and the impulse to collaborate with American schemes will mean that official so-called “European foreign policy” and defense will likely remain marginal (notwithstanding the large number of, mostly relatively small, EU civil and military operations abroad). However, these days, foreign policy and world power are less and less the stuff of diplomatic chancelleries and hard military action. (Can it be said that the U.S. “benefited” from the untold trillions spent and other non-financial costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the two greatest manifestations of American military power?)

Instead today, as economic, environmental and security interdependence between countries steadily increases, foreign policy is increasingly an extension of domestic policy, what in German is called Weltinnenpolitik. In English, we talk less elegantly of “intermestic” issues and there is overlap with the concept of “global governance”. As examples, here are some of the questions the world powers of today are fighting over: What kind of world will we live in? A world of massive energy waste? Of environmental unsustainability? Of banksterism run amok? Of international lawlessness? Of war? Or will we live in a world Europeans (and likely others too) would want to live in? These questions will not be determined primarily by hard military power and conquest.

Instead, here, the EU may well actually be able to become a genuine actor. Within Europe, the rules for financial regulation and climate, for example, will be based on qualified majority voting. Outside Europe, trade and aid policy, the prime methods for incentivizing and fighting for one’s vision of the world, will also be subject to the new majoritarian rules. The EU may then, for the first time, be able to actually fulfill the call that French and German philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida made in May 2003:

Read more: Europa 2024 (ii): Will the new Europe become a world power? | Craig Willy | EU affairs writer

European Banking Union? In cautionary move, Europe centralizes bank oversight

European Union finance ministers reached an agreement early Thursday to create a single supervisor for their banks - one of the most significant transfers of authority from national governments to regional authorities since the creation of the euro currency.

Under the deal, banks with more than $39 billion in assets supervised or those that represent a significant proportion of their national economies will be placed under the oversight of the European Central Bank.

The deal gives the ECB broad powers, including the ability to grant and withdraw banking licenses, investigate institutions, and financially sanction banks that don't follow the rules.

But perhaps most important is that it paves the way for Europe's rescue fund to directly rescue the continent's troubled banks.

"It's real progress that opens up interesting possibilities," said French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, without giving a specific date for when the first banks could seek direct aid.

 Read more: In cautionary move, Europe centralizes bank oversight - CBS News

From a distance all appears well but from within the EU controversy is fed by local politicians and outdated structures - by RM

The EU is maturing, but in order to make it a more workable Union politicians are not following-up on improving its functionality. In other words, what was considered "a work in progress" has become a stagnated "Pandora's box" from which all kinds of stop-gap methods are pulled, while most real problems are shoved under the mat.

Obviously this can go on for a while but eventually it will result in a breakup of the EU with horrific consequences for everyone.

It seems there are two areas of concern which need to be addressed as soon as possible.

1) too much reliance on keeping the international financial industry happy

In tackling this problem let us keep in mind.
a) banks are not too big too fail when they become too big to manage
b) the international financial industry is not people friendly or transparent but their relationship with governments is protective on the side of the governments, which raises a lot of questions.

One solution could be the proposed creation of a fiscal union next to the political union, only if this fiscal union in reality will be able to block external speculators and lower interest rates. The EU has the financial resources and structures to realize a fiscal union rather quickly as long as there is enough political will to do so.

2) Citizens of the EU are not fully included in the present Bruxelles political structure and decision making process 

Instead of seeing the EU as a positive force citizens consider it more as a hindrance to their well being. This obviously is a boost to right-wing and nationalist politicians like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and similar narrow-minded politicians around Europe, who unfortunately are gaining in strength.

Solving this credibility/visibility gap could be relative simple if politicians have the courage to approach it with vision and are able to step over their own nationalistic shadows.

a)  Democratize the EU political structure by including a popularly elected President and Vice President to operate in conjunction with the European Commission, the European Parliament  and the European Court of Justice, while at the same time guaranteeing the independence of the national parliaments of all EU member nation states.   

b) revamp the EU public information services by binging in professional communicators with private sector experience who are able to communicate in a pro-active way. Information coming out of the EU today is mainly influenced by opinions from the international press.

A note of caution on referendums: 
Referendums have always turned to be a 'cop-out'. They usually reflect short-term public opinion based on the rhetoric of politicians or the economic situation of the country where the referendum is held. Referendums never reflect a long term vision of the population and therefore decisions about changes as those mentioned above can best come from locally elected parliaments and governments.

It's all a question of courage and maybe our European politicians will eventually surprise us?

EU-Digest

Europe examines major step toward unity

When Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets, the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realize, if it ever came to be.

One year later, with the euro zone's debt crisis threatening to tear the bloc apart, Germany is pushing its partners for precisely the kind of giant leap forward in fiscal integration that the now-departed European Central Bank president had in mind.

After falling short with her "fiscal compact" on budget discipline, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing for much more ambitious measures, including a central authority to manage euro area finances, and major new powers for the European Commission, European Parliament and European Court of Justice.

Read more: Europe examines major step toward unity

"More Europe, not less Europe" - says Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt on the future of the EU

The EU should not take the blame for the economic crisis in the individual member states.

That was one of the main points of Monday’s meeting between the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt on the future of the EU at the University of Copenhagen.

“The crisis was not created at a European level, but was basically created because the member states didn’t keep their own house in order,” Thorning-Schmidt said, arguing that “the lesson is that what each individual country chooses to do will affect the rest and our solutions must be carried out in co-ordination with one another.”

Barroso said that is easy to blame the EU for the crisis – pointing to the perceived snowball effect of the problems in Italy and Greece – but the fact is that the crisis began in the individual countries. But to get out of the crisis, he said, the member states must stick together and both co-operate and make compromises.
According to Thorning-Schmidt, that is already happening. “The actions over the last months have shown that the EU is wiling to act together and act in solidarity,” she said.

She dismissed the recent criticism levelled at the EU that it hasn’t taken concrete action.

For more: "More Europe, not less Europe" | The Copenhagen Post | The Danish News in English

Germany to Europe: Don't criticize us on eurocrisis leadership - by Robert Marquand

Amid Europe's most serious economic crisis since World War II, Germany has taken the lead. Berlin insists on austerity as a way to reform debtor nations and as a price tag for bailouts worth billions. European nations en masse are signing up to live within their means.

On March 2, German Chancellor Angela Merkel got 25 of the 27 European Union nations to agree to hard-wire fiscal discipline and debt limits into their national laws – a quiet shift with historic implications.

The world criticizes Germany for being strong, but not leading, in the euro crisis. Now, as we start to lead, we are criticized, if not demonized. We are called selfish or Nazis. But if we are to lead, we want to use our experience, our rules, and our models. That means an austerity policy favoring price stability and cutting debt. And we don't want to be rushed; we have domestic political hurdles to surmount. German voters don't want to pay for others' excesses. They were told when Germany joined the eurozone that they would not have to bail anyone out. This is basic.

For more: Germany to Europe: Don't criticize us on eurocrisis leadership - CSMonitor.com

Germany: Merkel's Increasing Isolation: Germany at Odds with Partners over Euro Crisis

Boyko Borisov cuts an imposing figure. The Bulgarian prime minister has the build of a piano mover, and he used to coach his country's national karate team. He towered over German Chancellor Angela Merkel while walking with her through the Chancellery in Berlin.

Indeed, he almost seemed like a Merkel bodyguard during his visit to the German capital last Wednesday, particularly when the subject of the euro crisis came up. For days, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has been insisting that Germany needed to do more to save the common currency. But Borisov, in contrast, told his audience that he would like to "thank Germany … on behalf of many countries in the European Union." He said that what was important now was budget consolidation, to only spend as much as is brought in and to save, save, save.

"Everyone has to work as much as the Germans," he added. Merkel nodded with satisfaction. Finally someone was showing some understanding for once.


For more: Merkel's Increasing Isolation: Germany at Odds with Partners over Euro Crisis - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

British Chauvinism versus European Unity: "An open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel - by Frederik Forsyth"

"Permit  me to begin this letter with a brief description of my knowledge of, and affection for, your country.

I first came to Germany as a boy student aged 13 in 1952, two years before you were born. After three extended vacations with German families who spoke no English I found at the age of 16 and to my pleasure that I could pass for German among Germans.

I also had occasion in those years to visit the many thousands of my countrymen who held the line of the Elbe against 50,000 Soviet main battle tanks and thus kept Germany free to recover, modernize and prosper at no defense cost to herself.

And from inside the Cold War I saw our decades of effort to defeat the Soviet empire and set your East Germany free.

I was therefore disappointed last Friday to see you take the part of a small and vindictive Frenchman in what can only be seen as a targeted attack on the land of my fathers.

It is not just a few greedy bankers; we both have those but the City of London is far more. It is indeed a vast banking agglomeration of more banks than anywhere else in the world. But that is the tip of the iceberg. Also in the City is the world’s greatest concentration of insurance companies.

Add to that the brokers; traders in stocks and shares worldwide, second only, and then maybe not, to Wall Street. But it is not just stocks. The City is also home to the “exchanges” of gold and precious metals, diamonds, base metals, commodities, futures, derivatives, coffee, cocoa… the list goes on and on.

Yet in Brussels last week the EU pack seemed intent only on venting its spleen on the country that wisely refused to abolish its pound. You did not even address yourselves to saving the euro but only to seeking a way to ensure it might work in some future time.

But the euro will not be saved. It is crumbling now. And since you have now turned against my country, from this side of the Channel, Madame Chancellor, one can only say of the euro: YOU MADE IT, YOU MEND IT."

Note EU-Digest: the open letter to Mrs. Angela Merkel by Frederik Forsyth of the Express seems to confirm once again how chauvinistic and  arrogant the British can be. Germany and for that matter all of Europe do not consider any country an enemy, like Mr. Forsyth claims it does. The EU bases its judgement about other countries on their trustfulness and commitment. Britain unfortunately often has shown that it does not meet that criteria.

As to the EU.  In this context it is important to remember that when the British were fighting the "rebels" of their American colonies, that Benjamin Franklin drew a cartoon ( see illustration) about the "disunited state" of the colonies. 

This cartoon of a snake cut in pieces showed how important it was for the colonies to be united. The image became a potent symbol of American colonial unity and resistance to what was seen as British oppression. There was a superstition that a snake which had been cut into pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset. 

The playing field might  have changed this time around, but the scenario applied by Britain to Europe is still the same. The EU, like the US in the time of  American Revolution, when Benjamin Franklin drew the cartoon of the snake, must therefore make a major effort  to strengthen  their commitment to remain united  if they want to stop the forces which are trying to dismantle and destroy it.

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | Columnists :: An open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Euro Summit Leaves U.K. Camarooned - by Simon Nixon

David Cameron has spent the last year antagonizing his European Union partners with repeated demands they resolve the euro zone crisis while refusing to offer any support. Early on Friday morning, he antagonized them further, vetoing a proposal to incorporate new euro zone fiscal discipline procedures into the European treaties after failing to achieve certain "safeguards" for the City of London. The result leaves the euro zone facing further damaging uncertainty - and may yet end up harming the City.

None of the proposed treaty changes posed a big threat to UK national interests. But under domestic pressure, Mr. Cameron made a number of demands related to financial services regulation as the price of his support. Instead euro zone leaders decided a crisis summit was not the place to make decisions on the fine print of future legislation including maximum harmonization of bank capital ratios and how much power to allow national bank supervisors. So the leaders called Mr. Cameron's bluff, who promptly called their bluff, daring them to follow through on a threat to negotiate a separate treaty.

Far from protecting the City, London may find itself without allies just when it needs them over the new financial services directives. Ironically, Britain has led demands for stricter E.U. regulation and a level playing field. Historically, the U.K. has a good track record of defending the City in Brussels, despite the hostility from some countries; it has never been outvoted on a financial services directive. That may now change. Meanwhile, the U.K may find itself increasingly side-lined in wider E.U. debates, setting in train a process that could yet lead to its eventual withdrawal. This is not the position Mr. Cameron wanted to be in.

For more: Euro Summit Leaves U.K. Camarooned - WSJ.com

Not everyone agrees that euro's end would finish off Europe unity - by Henry Chu

Not everyone agrees that euro's end would finish off Europe too
EU officials are working feverishly to ensure the euro survives a raging debt crisis threatening its 10th birthday. But some Europeans are sure it's impossible to turn back the clock on integration.

On New Year's Day almost a decade ago, cash registers and ATMs across Europe started spitting out the shiny coins and crisp notes of the world's newest currency, the euro.

They were the most radical, tangible symbol of the long march toward reconciliation and harmony on a continent still haunted by the memories of two world wars. A single currency, proponents said, would set the seal on an era of European unity that already boasted free markets and free movement.

For more: Not everyone agrees that euro's end would finish off Europe unity - latimes.com

It’s too early to write Europe off - by Dirk-Jan van Baar

Economic power is not the only criterion for global power. What matters is how political systems respond to new crises. And from this perspective, the EU is still in with a chance, writes Dutch historian Dirk-Jan van Baar.

When it comes to experimentation and innovation, it is much too early to write Europe off. With the introduction of the euro and EU expansion into Eastern Europe, no other continent has witnessed such a radical trans-national transformation in the last decade. It is only natural then that such transformations falter and face challenges. It remains an achievement therefore that the euro was introduced according to plan and that the eurozone, in spite of a complex debt problem whose scale few had predicted, has so far not disintegrated. This demonstrates that Europe holds much greater political power than it is generally credited with.

The current crisis, with all its financial entanglement, is leading (albeit unintentionally) to an unprecedented European solidarity that will be difficult to reverse. European leaders including Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, and the European Central Bank are also displaying an impressive ability to learn as they improvise their way through uncharted waters. That the media sees this differently is because point scoring sets the tone and that political leaders are routinely slated. However, I think you can only really judge the calibre of politicians when they have their feet in the mire – which is now the case.

Of course, many things may go wrong, and Atlantic cooperation has seen better days. But the East can only dream of such pacification mechanisms. And even if Asia – still plagued by all sorts of disasters and having still to prove itself when it comes to enduring self-governance – has its future ahead of it, it will nevertheless be a future in a world economy shaped by western ideas. You would have to be a true defeatist to then still speak of the decline of the West.

Note EU-Digest:   It all has to do with vision and being able to rise to the occasion by overturning what today, in human terms might be perceived by some as one of  irreconcilable differences, with an irrevocable commitment on the part of all European leaders and  the half a billion European citizens, to continue in unity with what is without doubt the most important economic and political project of this century on earth.  .

For more: It’s too early to write Europe off |de Volkskrant

Who will save Europe this time?

Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, argues this is the first time since the Second World War that no single country or bloc has the political and economic weight to push an international agenda. They’ve dubbed this the G-Zero era. One of the main consequences of a leaderless world, as Gordon and Bremmer warned in a recent editorial in the International Herald Tribune, will be “messier outcomes” when crises hit.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the eurozone’s inability to fix its finances. Italy’s bond prices have been soaring of late, making it increasingly likely the country will need outside funding to avoid default. The problem is, Italy might be too big for Europe to save. And with no one rushing to Europe’s aid, the situation may get very messy indeed.

Note EU-Digest: in looking at the Eurozone crises it is interesting to note that the report above does not cover some of the underlying reason for the present stress within the Atlantic alliance. 

One should not underestimate that the EU has become one of the most important, if not, the most important economic powerhouse in the world. 

Consequently, what is considered as a financial crises in the Eurozone is seen by some insiders as one of the many issues in a power struggle, based on the differences of economic and political philosophy between the existing Anglo-Saxon financial/political establishment nd the EU. These differences are now not only apparent in the Eurozone economic sector but also in the approach to Middle East political strategy. 

For more: Who will save Europe this time? | CanadianBusiness.com

Eurozone crisis: "The size of the solution has to be in proportion to the problem we're solving." - by Robert Schuman

Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg and current president of the Euro-Group, once joked: "We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it." The quip has gained a frightening new relevance ahead of a "great leap forward" to an economic union that can keep the markets at bay. The hardcore eurozone countries, led by Germany, have made it clear that the sovereign debt crisis leaves politicians no room for manoeuvre, however far their poll ratings fall.

The constant refrain from Berlin is that the laggards at the back of the eurozone class need to start doing their homework. In Rome, Madrid and elsewhere, the sums relating to national debt, budget deficits and state spending need to start to add up. The days when governments could go their own sweet way, ignoring treaty agreements and responsible only to their electorates, have gone.

Without a new disciplinary apparatus, designed to keep the "reckless and feckless" on the straight and narrow, and policed by the European commission, there is not a chance that Berlin will compromise its own finances by pooling its debt with beleaguered neighbours. It would far prefer to strike out in a new elite monetary grouping, probably including the Netherlands, Austria and France. And Merkel will not countenance a massive and inflationary intervention by the European Central Bank.

As to Britain , their prime minister will have discovered that, as the European dream of integration via monetary union teeters on the brink of catastrophe and the concerns of the semi-detached (like Britain) are at the top of no one's agenda. The UK's decision not to directly assist bailout funds for Greece and Portugal went down badly; the subsequent exhortations from Downing Street to sort the euro mess out were greeted with exasperation.So Downing Street will be no more than a spectator as the eurozone launches itself, in the context of crisis, into a new era.

Will the eurozone's population ultimately be reconciled to emasculated national parliaments enacting austerity programs that may take their countries back into recession? Barroso has taken to quoting the wisdom of another of the founding fathers of the EU, Jean Monnet: "People are ready to change when they understand there is no alternative."

For more: Eurozone crisis: European Union prepares for the 'great leap forward' | Business | The Observer

"Your Empire and us in Europe"

A Europe under the rule of the Iron Lady Merkel and her people, authors of an “economic miracle”? The thesis repeated by British newspapers is exasperating the German press. To the editorialists across the Channel who defend excluding Germany from the eurozone on the pretext that Berlin “has destabilised the euro with its low wages, ruthless productivity and well-known Panzer mentality,” Spiegel-Online responds with a scathing “Your Empire and us.”

In Paris, Le Monde notes the “gulf” that separates German and British views on Europe’s future. On the one hand, the Chancellor is calling for further European integration; on the other, Prime Minister David Cameron believes that the crisis should be an opportunity for Britain to "reshape" its relationship to the EU. “That is to say: ‘repatriate powers' to London, rather than see them 'drift' to Brussels.”

In the current climate, the eternal British ambivalence undermines Europe by the day,” adds Le Monde. Summing up its thoughts on the subject, the paper concludes: On Europe, London has to choose – or keep quiet.

For more: Britische Euro-Kritiker: Euer Empire und wir - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten - Politik

New center-left Danish government withdraws border control plans

Germany has welcomed a plan by Denmark's newly elected center-left government to reverse a decision to place permanent customs controls at the country's borders.

"This is a decision in favour of liberty for European citizens," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin.

Germany, along with the European Commission, had been among the harshest critics of the plan, which was introduced by Denmark's previous center-right government.

The German foreign minister's statement came in response to the announcement earlier in the day by Denmark's new Social Democrat prime minister.

For more: New center-left Danish government withdraws border control plans | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 04.10.2011

Europe's Dilemma: More Integration Or Less? by Tom Gjelten

European governments seem to be having a hard time deciding whether to come together or drift apart at a time of economic uncertainty.

Years from now, historians will no doubt say this was a crisis waiting to happen. The people who came up with the idea of a eurozone stopped halfway. The participating countries would use a common currency, but they wouldn't have common tax and spending policies — a monetary union but not a fiscal union. The debt crisis has now shown governments it's hard to have it both ways.

Either they coordinate their tax and spending policies or they face a break up of their currency union. Jacob Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics says it's like the Europeans built only half a house — and half a house can't stand on its own. "Europe basically faces a choice," he said. "It can either dismantle the piece that they built earlier or they can build the other half of the house, so to speak."

For more: Europe's Dilemma: More Integration Or Less? : NPR

Battle under way for soul of 'United States of Europe'

Star economists and former national leaders now happily argue that resolving the eurozone debt crisis will eventually demand the surrendering of sovereignty to create a fully-fledged United States of Europe.
However, as they press for the political integration they say is needed to prevent the currency union collapsing on an Achilles heel of Greek debt, even advocates in unguarded moments admit resistance to the surrender of national sovereignty is rising.

Either Europe moves forward to "political union," Nobel Prize-winning economist Nouriel Roubini said in Brussels on Monday, or the result will be "eventual disintegration, break-up."

Roubini was speaking at the launch of a manifesto by the self-appointed "Council for the Future of Europe," a think tank set up by Nicolas Berggruen, the billionaire son of a famed German-Jewish art collector.

For more: AFP: Battle under way for soul of 'United States of Europe'