Wednesday, January 16, 2013

What Europe is not doing for the member-countries of the south - Jannis Meimaroglou

We knew all along that the process of the European unification would be slow and agonizing.
We also knew that it would be an unprecedented course which would go through the contradictions and the difficulties embedded in the endeavor to render the conditions of a number of European countries of different course and development level uniform.
The precondition for the success of such an effort was the need for the European integration to proceed gradually, by steady steps and on all levels- political, financial and social- in parallel.
This necessary rule was overridden many times up today, resulting to new problems all the time leading the overall effort to setbacks.
At times – when the wall fell – the priority was given to political expediency, at times – with the establishment of euro- the priority was given to the monetary union, without undertaking the necessary measures for a joint European economic policy etc.
The result of all the fragmented priorities was to increase, instead of decreasing, the distance between the member countries and to sharpen the contrasts between them.
The big deficits of the southern countries’ economies, a result – apart from their own mismanagement problems – of their negative trade balances, were dealt unilaterally and almost exclusively with measures of fiscal adjustment by the European institutional organs.
As a result, the societies of the South European countries and their connective tissue – which is practically collapsing – have received a multiple and painful blow.
The cuts in the wages of the working and retired in the private and public sectors and moreover the record percentages of unemployment have brought the societies into despair with unforeseen consequences for their future.
The dimension of development, the need for new, productive investments, aiming at the creation of new jobs, financial liquidity in the market and the increase of turnover, have stayed out of the European recipes which were limited to measures and policies of harsh austerity , loyal to the theory “ the fiscal discipline comes first and development follows”.
It was most emphatically proven –even by competent European dignitaries – that this recipe brought the opposite of the desired result.
The European integration is an one-way street for the people of Europe.
 #thesouthintalk

1 σχόλια:

  1. Indeed, European integration is a one-way street in order for Europe to overcome the crisis. Not only the economic crisis, but also the political crisis as well. The re-nationalization promoted by the conservative majority in Europe will inevitably lead, once again, to fragmentation. Progressives, especialy of the South, must stand against this prospect and reset their priorities by making European federalization a primary task.

    Philippos Savvides

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