25 March 2016

Paul Goldschmidt: The time for conversion is upon us!

From the horror of the latest terrorist attacks emerges a unique opportunity to attack boldly the scourge of terrorism as well as demonstrating simultaneously that the proposals of “populists” and “Euro sceptics” who advocate the primacy of the Nation-State fail to come up with appropriate answers.

[...]The so badly decried and discredited political establishment should take advantage of this opportunity to bury their partisan differences and implement the European policies that the ordinary citizens so desperately crave for in the areas of defence, security, immigration, and exterior border controls. This effort should be extended to other European policies whose implementation is currently stalled: completing EMU, agreeing on an energy union and digital union, etc. A better opportunity to lift the EU, with full public support, out of the rut into which it has fallen, is unlikely to occur.
 
One should face the future squarely: the EU will have to assume its “federal” destiny or it will not survive. The profound strictures within the EU, that the so far largely failed attempts to deal with immigration have revealed, are likely to accelerate significantly the likelihood of its implosion because the dismantling of the Schengen area that we are witnessing, is gradually putting both the operation of  single market as well as the viability of the Euro into jeopardy.  In a fragile world economic environment, financial markets will at some point attack its weakest elements including the € and the sovereign debt of some EMU members. At that point it will be too late!
 
The federal solution implies transfers of - largely virtual - national sovereignties towards more real shared sovereignties. The reality and heightened awareness of the terrorist threat, together with the fears it propagates, should make such transfers possible, instead of being considered previously utopia by so-called pragmatists and euro sceptics of all persuasions.
 
In this respect, the debate surrounding Brexit is a real godsend because it highlights both the advantages and drawbacks of leaving the EU. Its lessons can be applied mutatis mutandis to any Nation-State having recovered its full independence except that, by definition, there would be no remaining EU with which to negotiate a free trade agreement. In addition to the economic and financial chaos that would ensue, major geopolitical consequences would emerge, including within Europe, of which the main beneficiary is likely to be a man by the name of “Vladimir”.
 
As to those of my readers who frequently accuse me of naivety and a total lack of realism due to my continuous plea for “more Europe”, it is my turn to confront them with the inevitable disastrous consequences of policies based on the premise of “I’m better off on my own”. If it is undoubtedly true that all crises end, let us not forget that the 1930’s, with which the current situation is increasingly being compared, led to incalculable sufferings; rather than following blindly such a path, time has come to unite to prevent a similar outcome.
 
The political establishment has an opportunity to engage in a deep reform without having to lose face: how many of its members will have the courage to change their opinions and embrace wholeheartedly, in the name of the superior interests of the State and their constituents, policies which are sometimes diametrically opposed to those they advocated previously in more or less good faith?
 
Conversion is required immediately, before Europe runs out of time!

Full article on Paul Goldschmidt website

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