At a foreign policy conference this week, the world got a taste of the conflicting views of Great Britain and Germany on the future of the European Union. The foreign ministers of both countries spoke on their visions for the bloc. Britain spoke of a union that focused on cooperation for efficient trade, but which returned more power to the respective parliaments of member states. Germany, on the other hand, espoused the view that this was the time for the EU to become a greater political union.
This may seem like a lot of controversy for an international body that just won the nobel peace prize. But the global financial crisis and the debt crises in several EU countries have left the world wondering about the true benefits of the European Union. Many think that the common currency of the EU exacerbated a bad situation for poorer member states–since they no longer had the option of devaluing their currency in order to curb inflation–while simultaneously helping prosperous states weather the storm. Though Britain is doing relatively well, it’s not surprising that its pragmatic citizens have become disenchanted with the ideal of the Union. Other countries have similar doubts–though Turkey applied to become a member of the EU in 2005, reports from the last few years show a Turkish populace that’s increasingly lukewarm on the idea, wondering if Turkey’s burgeoning economy might just do better on its own.
For my part, I don’t think the EU is going anywhere anytime soon. Europe is simply too entrenched in its current system; the logistics of such a dissolution would be incredibly complicated. But I can imagine many member governments, like Britain, wary of the increased interdependence that Germany seems to support.
jennaljackson 