Riots, gas bombs, and arson – doesn’t really sound like unity, does it? On Sunday, 100,000 protests filled the streets of Athens to challenge new austerity measures approved by Greek lawmakers. The financial cuts, which were approved in a 199-74 vote, “will ax one in five civil service jobs and slash the minimum wage by more than a fifth.” In return, Greece will receive another $170 billion bailout, coughed up by the IMF and other European contributors.
We’ve seen this before. Protestors have been loud in the past few years, sparked by the financial crisis that surfaced in late 2009 with the downgrading of European government debt. Greece, Ireland, and Portugal have been hit especially hard, and each has received bailouts to rescue their economies. But this money is just a temporary band-aid, and without real structural change, the wounds are going to keep bleeding.
Initially, the Eurozone stood firmly behind Greece, promising to lend financial support for the sake of saving the greater economy. Greece happily accepted its first bailout gift in 2010, but failed to implement any long-term change. It’s hard to create policies of austerity and responsibility when the people refuse to accept cuts. The country explodes – literally.
Now the rest of Europe is getting ticked off. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, the leaders of the two largest economies in the Eurozone, chastised Greece verbally last month, and both are extremely hesitant to lend more support. They are feeling pressure from their domestic constituents, who refuse to sacrifice their ‘hard-earned’ money for an irresponsible, misbehaving neighbor. With Greece clamoring for more money, their cautious and conservative judgment has been well received. In fact, Merkel’s approval rating in Germany has climbed to its “highest level since her 2009 reelection.” Sarkozy is seeking reelection this spring.
Euroskepticism is even stronger in the United Kingdom, where members of David Cameron’s own party demanded a referendum on EU membership last fall. In a public poll, almost 50% of voters wanted to withdraw from the EU. Although a vote in Parliament never took place, the idea that such a referendum was even proposed stands in sharp contrast to the perpetuity of union.
Clearly, Europe is rife with tension. The continent is being held together by a shoddy glue job. Fiscally, things are not well, but it’s about more than just the money. There are some fundamental, ideological problems that lie at the core of the EU, and it’s creating deep fissures that are now visible in the lovely cobblestone streets littered with bombs and fire.
First, state sovereignty is threatened. Domestic legislation must compete with, and often yield to, the decisions of the EU. For example, members of the Eurozone have abandoned their own currencies in favor of the euro. Further ceding their power, monetary policy is now controlled by European Central Bank.
In many ways, the EU has become a sovereign body whose power precedes and overshadows the sovereignty of the states it represents. It takes strong leaders like Merkel and Sarkozy to curb the overreaching arm in Brussels. And is it a coincidence that the United Kingdom, which threatened withdrawal, is one of the few states not part of the Eurozone?
Furthermore, at the heart of the EU is a consolidating, centralizing ideology. Its Constitution states it plainly: “…the peoples of Europe are determined to transcend their former divisions and, united ever more closely, to forge a common destiny…” I don’t think the current fiasco is the destiny that the people want to share, nor the utopia that the framers imagined. Culturally and economically, the twenty-seven member states are too distinct to form a lasting partnership.
If there was ever any sense of a proud, greater “Europe” that transcends national boundaries and identities, it’s not evident any more.
