Germany as Hegemonic Power: The Crisis of European Integration By Joachim Bischoff and Richard Detje transform!, no. 11-2012 http://transform-network.net/journal/issue-112012/
From its inception, Europe has been a political project - aimed at overcoming conflicts and creating cooperation. Over the course of the last decades European nations - led by economic and pollitical elites - were able to overcome their long-established enmities. This goal, and the enormous commitment of many forces in civil society and institutional politics, undeniably deserves to be recognised and honoured as a service in the cause of peace. Nevertheless, the bestowal of the Nobel Prize for Peace on the European Union also indicates a problem. For a long time now, the EU has been a project of the economic and political elites. From the south to the north, Euro-scepticism is growing. While the chauvinist-anti-democratic right advocates a return to the nation-state, the left is mobilising against the social consequences of radical austerity politics. And the political blocs of the conservatives and social democrats find it increasingly hard to keep up their mantra of austerity policies without alternatives. The number of heads of government who have politically survived the crisis since 2009 is small. In this situation, the symbolic cover given by the Nobel Prize for Peace is intended to strengthen the idea of peace. [...] With the Euro the whole European fabric would totter. The flawed construction of the Euro regime cannot be repaired by abolishing the Euro. And yet: The wave of Euro-enemies could very quickly turn political power relations upside down in many European countries - to the far right. Eurozone governments want to resist this possibility through the new European fiscal regime. This new and concerted fiscal and economic policy is neither social nor democratic. It reinforces tendencies to authoritarian capitalism. There can only be a collective way out. The dismantling of current account surpluses and the expansion of the domestic economy in the core countries are indispensable contributions to EU stabilisation. What is necessary is a reform which instead of resting on the single pillar of money and currency policies will rest on three further pillars: a common fiscal policy which redistributes resources from top to bottom; economic policies which can socially and ecologically renew Europe with public investment programmes; and social policies that eliminate poverty and create development opportunities. The EU is the result of the political will to overcome apparently irreconcilable antagonisms. This has, from the beginning, meant the reconciliation of peoples who for centuries had seen each other as arch enemies. Measured against such an achievement, the latest challenge to put economic development and the common currency on a sustainable basis would seem to be a less daunting task. Nevertheless: the resistances and obstacles seem insurmountable. Nationalistic centrifugal forces have in recent years gained considerable new strength and pose a threat to the entire European construction - they could put an end to the peace project. full: http://transform-network.net/journal/issue-112012/news/detail/Journal/germany-as-hegemonic-power-the-crisis-of-european-integration.html _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
