Euroman speaks with forked tongue
EPA/ROBIN UTRECHT
In the good old days, when Europe was divided in hundreds of little fiefdoms, people spoke their own language, only had to pay allegiance to their own constituency, and since their constituency only was aware of what they said, they always spoke the truth. Their truth to be precise, but whatever they said was seen as what had actually happened in the real world.
Over the last couple of weeks and months this made the debate on European affairs very interesting on a national level, but passed underneath the the multinational radar. That is to say that German politicians, journalists and the general public were very well aware of German reservations about the consequences the various euro rescue schemes' would have for German taxpayers, but very little aware of what was going on in other member states.
It is a bit unfair, though, to single out the Germans, since Germany - in all honestly - is the only country in the Eurozone where there is a real debate on the ins and outs of Eurozone rescue schemes and the like; This is in large part due to the fact that no matter what decision Europe takes it will be the Germans that have to foot most of the bill. And believe it or not, it is not so much paying that they mind, since they do that anyway. They are even proud of the fact that it shows - which it really does – and that they have the best performing economy in the Eurozone. What they do resent, though, is paying for countries that, in their opinion, do not play the game by the rules.
All this is understandable, and German leaders, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wlofgang Schäuble, have done nothing else over the last couple of months than to explain that Germany is indeed willing to pay, if the proper conditions for a banking and fiscal union are in place. Therefore, the German position was seen as hard and non-flexible by those that do not understand German, or indeed northern European, politics.
Now that the European Council has decided to try at least to put the banking union in place, with a single EU banking supervisory authority, one would think that all would hail Chancellor Merkel for agreeing, and singing and dancing in the street of Brussels should have been the images coming out of the summit last week.
Somehow this did not happen. Why? Because these people are not interested in solutions. And by people I mean European government leaders. Some, if not most of them, are interested only in gaining as much popular support with whatever policies happens to please the electorate. And thus Prime Ministers Jyrki Katainen of Finland and Mark Rutte of the Netherlands decided to say after the meeting of European leaders last week, where they agreed to ESM bond Buying and ESM injecting of money directly into Spanish banks, that they were very courageous and opposed all these measures and will do so in the future. In short. they lied outright in Brussels and at home. Rutte has already been accused in the past of saying ‘A’ in Brussels and ‘B’ in the Hague and now the proof is there since even foreigners talk about it. Strangely enough, the Dutch press has not just yet, but with elections looming on 12 September it will no doubt emerge in due course.
Still apart from the singular electoral consequences of their behaviour at home, their - Katainen and Rutte - behaviour does show that basically with politicians of their calibre no deal can be struck in Europe. They are willing to deny any position they took in the decisive moment. As this is not the first case where this happens, and these are not the only leaders who act in such a deceiving way, it is time to address European decision making. Either we leave it to the Member States - as is unfortunately the case now - and thus be subject to the two-timing these two PM's showed in abundance - native Americans would say they spoke in forked tongues - and believe me, these two stand for a good 20 or more of the others, or the people on all their ignorance have to decide.
Or - and this could be the most desirable solution - European leaders would actually do that: lead Europe, and explain to their people that for certain benefits to be profited from it would be good to have more European integration, and thus gives up of more of your sovereignty for the good cause. Alas, at least the Dutch and Finnish PMs opted to lie for short-term electoral gain. One can only hope that electorates have memories.
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