Graham Bishop's Blog: Stating the obvious - FT's Münchau says "national interests undermine Europe" - but he has a point!
10 March 2014
The easy assumption that fear of war disappeared in Europe with the Berlin Wall is being challenged by Putin's actions but what can the EU do about it?
The EU is NOT a single state – and really is just a collection of 28 sovereign states that choose to act together on specific topics agreed already in "the Treaty". The rest of the time they are all over the place – until they realise it is collectively damaging and gradually do something about it – example: monetary union.
The EU may be an 'economic colossus but political pygmy' and Münchau rightly lambasts the failure to create a single EU market for energy. But Russia may come to regret tweaking the colossus’ tail too often. The EU’s population is nearly four times that of Russia but its economy is an amazing ten times the size of Russia’s oil- and gas-dominated economy. It can decide (albeit reluctantly) to endure some economic pain and reduce its dependency on Russia. Once done, there will be no going back. (In 1980, there were 250K coalminers in the UK who went on strike once too often. A decade later there were just 50K miners, and virtually none today.)
As Münchau points out, "Mr Putin has unwittingly given pro-Europeans their most powerful campaign argument for the upcoming European elections…" Little wonder the rouble is down 10 per cent against the euro in two months!
Rolling Blog
Münchau's FT-article, 9.3.14
Graham Bishop - Consultant on EU Integration - Political, Financial, Economic, Budgetary
© Graham Bishop
