THE overwhelming rejection by the Greeks of the lending conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Union (EU) for additional funding for Greece is only one of Europe’s problems.
The “Greek Problem” is only a symptom of monumental failure of trying to bring European countries under a single government. Europe tried to base the concept of an EU on the formation of the United States failing to remember that union took place more than 200 years ago by sovereign states that were unified by common self-interest. Further, the economic inequality between nations, such as Germany and Greece, insured that there would be an inequality of power unlike during the formation of the US.
The EU is facing an increasing climate of destabilization, as Greece has asserted its independence from the EU central government and its financial institutions. But Greece is joined by the United Kingdom, which is not so united anymore. While the UK is not part of the euro currency scheme, it is a part of the EU and is coming close to reducing its ties to the EU. Brussels, the seat of the EU government, has attempted to unify a massive amount of standardized rules and regulations, crossing national borders, which have, in effect, reduced individual national sovereignty.
The continuing battle with Russia has also divided the EU. The economic sanctions against the Russian Federation came at the insistence of the United States. But those sanctions have had insignificant economic impact on the US, whereas many European countries have suffered more than Russia. Food exports to Russia have been all but suspended, hurting EU farmers. German manufacturing is down because of exports to Russia being curtailed. And here again, the negative effects of the sanctions have brought unequal suffering to EU countries.
Perhaps the greatest problem for the EU is that, in its effort to give a semblance of democratic equality, each nation has a vote and veto power over major decisions. The economic sanctions against Russia require unanimous consent. With the relationship between Greece and the EU extremely rocky right now, Greece may veto the continuation of sanctions against Russia when the issue comes up again in the near future.
The current focus is, of course, on Greece. But the much wider issue is how much are the EU nations willing to give up protecting their own self-interest in favor of protecting the EU and the self-interests of the other members?
The EU experiment has proven that the needs and goals of the sun-drenched countries on the Mediterranean Sea may not be the same as of those countries on the ice-filled waters of the Baltic Sea. That is a big problem.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano