In case the frenzied American mid-term elections find you feeling anxious, it is nice to know that other people are fretting, too. For example:
The European Union's "Open Europe" news service has compiled an array of stories today about the confusion found nearly everywhere in the Old World about the future of the Eurozone. In the UK, where cost-cutting Prime Minister David Cameron was cheered by news improving economic growth, the PM is offering to ditch the idea of an EU referendum in his country in return for restraint on EU spending. Politically, that will not go down well in large parts of England and Wales where voters long for a chance to express themselves on further EU integration.
Meanwhile, the Germans increasingly are annoyed at plans to stick them with the bill for the financial derelictions of Greece and other big-spenders. The Czechs and Austrians aren't exactly thrilled, either.
A wise approach now might be to consolidate around a more limited and defensible EU that abandons its ambitions to run everyone's life out of Brussels bureaucracies and instead concentrates on least common denominator agreements on such matters as trade and economic development.
Here is the full Open Europe report:
"Cameron may agree new EU treaty in return for one-year cash freeze on budget;
France and Germany split over what new treaty should contain
The Mail reports that David Cameron has signalled that he will back French and German calls for EU treaty changes, limited to the eurozone, without holding a referendum in the UK, in return for a cap on the 2011 EU budget. Cameron is demanding a cash freeze to next year's budget and has said, "We need an alliance to block increases."
"The FT reports that, despite their united calls for treaty change, France and Germany cannot agree on what the proposed "crisis resolution mechanism" for the eurozone would cover. Germany wants to install a procedure for orderly debt default, believing the possibility of sovereign default will force the markets to discipline profligate governments. However, France reportedly accepts that the private sector should be involved, but advocates doing so in a co-operative way through rolling-over debt rather than through default. "There are ways of getting the private sector involved that could have a lower cost," said a French official. "Automatic debt restructuring could be more damaging than the illness it is trying to remedy."
"Meanwhile, Der Spiegel reports that, at a meeting of EU foreign ministers yesterday, Luxembourg, Austria and Czech Republic announced they would veto the proposed treaty change. Deutsche Welle quotes Finland's Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb saying he was open to the idea, adding that "at the end of the day, as long as the rules are tight, I'm happy."
"Opposition to the deal continues in Germany, with politicians in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition arguing that giving into French demands to water down sanctions for debt and deficit rule-breakers was too high a price for vague promises of treaty change. FAZ quotes Markus Ferber, Chairman of the German CSU group in the European Parliament, saying, "With the recent weakening of the Stability and Growth pact - which Merkel and Sarkozy devised behind closed doors - Europe is killing the very real progress in terms of securing the future of the euro."
"In Tagesspiegel, Liberal MEP Alexander Graf Lambsdorff describes the Franco-German agreement as one made in "never-never land". Socialist MEP Martin Schulz is quoted saying it would be "unrealistic to assume [that it will be] a smooth change of the EU-Treaty."
Sources: Mail Irish Times FT FT: Brussels blog Spectator: Coffee House blog Business Week Spiegel FAZ Handelsblatt Tagesspiegel Deutsche Welle Euractiv Europa Press ABC
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