Strangely, some might think, for a blog which was founded specifically to track EU affairs - with a view to fighting the referendum promised by Blair that never happened - I haven't covered the Greek financial crisis. Partly, this was because another matter claimed my attention, the all-embracing issue of "climate change" which has within it the potential to damage the European Union when, as indeed it must, a core policy crashes and burns. Mainly though, the lack of interest stemmed from a combined sense of déjà vu and ennui - the EU was in yet another crisis.

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Fine but does this leave us looking in or looking out? We are not in the Euro and even Brown, Cameron or Clegg cannot force us into it without a referendum even if they would have us. We do not meet the criteria with our debts.

Spin off those they don't want and that leaves Germany, the Netherlands and who else? France is in deep trouble and will get worse with the Euro regime as will Italy, Spain, Portugal and of course Greece. Belgium will split into two countries and as for the rest who know's?

If they want a political and an economic union they have to change the Lisbon Treaty to get round a lot of German objections. That means they re-open the Pandora' box of a referendum. They cannot sell the same stinking fish to the electorate twice. It will not work again.

There is then the problem of the double dip recession when it will be 'sauve qui peut'.

Be of good cheer, there are more and more Eurosceptics both here and in Europe who are now better informed and will not put up with more of the same. Who in 1987 would have predicted that the other political/economic construct that had blighted our lives for so long would collapse in 1989? They have not built the 1000 year reich just yet. They only think they have.

This explains Angela Merkel's desire for a new treaty about the eurozone so soon after the Lisbon Treaty was completed late last year, & her unexpected warning to Britain, & the Tories in particular, not to demand a review of any of the controversial issues included in, or left hanging from, the very objectionable Lisbon Treaty.

These issues include, inter alia, the:
1. excessive authority of the European Court of Justice,
2. ratchet or passerelle clause in the Lisbon Treaty,
3. objectionable Quantitive Majority Voting (QMV) procedure, which was massively extended by the Lisbon Treaty,
4. planned use of QMV in relation to the currently debated AIFM Directive, & the directive's likely negative effect on the workings of the City of London,
5. 48 hour working rule & its negative effect in the UK on junior doctors & voluteer firefighters etc,
6. exceptionally undemocratic way the EU operates where if a country's government-of-the-day agrees to an EU proposal later governments of that same country (which may have totally different political attitudes to the previous one) cannot have the earlier one's objectionable EU-related decisions revoked,
7. EU's active discouragement of referendums & its intense dislike (contempt more like) of any "No" votes when national referendums are actually held,
8. pointless attempts to set up an EU member-state armed force in duplicate to (or more likely in competition with) NATO, &
9. participation in the EU's ridiculous carbon trading scheme, & its absurd plan for all EU members to cut their so-called greenhouse emissions by 20% (or possibly even 30% if some of the more warmist bureaucrats get their way) by 2020.


As I said: inter alia. There are probably many more objectional matters between the UK & the EU than just these few.

Merkel & Germany are in a somewhat similar position as China is now. A potential export-dependant "bubble". Germany needs the eurozone as a major market for Germany's excessive dependency on exports. If the eurozone totters, then so do Germany's exports. And after all, Germany's need for the EU is to ensure that Germany remains free of the social chaos that accompanies economic hardship - which in Germany's case often generates authoritarianism. Merkel is playing for high stakes. Economic health & social peace in Germany. Clashing with British Tories, if they win the coming UK election, will be a small price for her to pay!

Watchet

Make or break.Make or break.Make or break.

This is the kind of experiment that leads to fatigue fracture.

Just wondering. Can a central bank go bust? You should see some of the toxic waste the ECB was forced to swallow when it couldn't buy govt bonds. Now its balance sheet is as bloated as pre-crisis RBS. One more heave and the euro banks will be forced to offer some good stuff as collateral instead of the BBB- the ECB seems to think acceptable.

That is the old socialist idea of bringing a government to crisis, tearing down its foundation, then rebuilding a socialist state.

Excellent. From your regular Eurodeferalist visitor.