What the EU does is undervalued. Yesterday's attempt by this column to highlight important areas of largely ignored or undervalued Community activity requires further explanation. The first involves public opinion. How can we be surprised if the public is indifferent, critical or sometimes negative about EU action if it is not correctly informed? It is true that our publication exists but it targets a specialist readership, which is therefore obviously a limited one. Other areas of the media are responsible for presenting an objective and comprehensive an overview as possible with regard to what is done by Europe. The Community institutions strive to distribute, explain and justify their activities but official sources of information are inevitably suspected of sounding their own trumpet. When the different political groups speak out they always choose to contradict what their political adversary has to say and the ordinary punter is left none the wiser. The different branches of the media operate according to their own criteria. Europe is currently almost totally monopolised by financial problems an it is normal that other subjects are left out, as this editorial explained yesterday.
Some informative examples. With regard to the “euro”, opinions change and there appears to be a concerted and sustained effort to draw attention by creating sensationalism. A prestigious newspaper, Le Monde, recently drew the attention of its readership with successive headlines on the problems being experienced by the Euro. Here they are: May 2010, “The Day the Euro Nearly Died”; November 2010, “Monetary Union on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown”; June 2011, “Saving Greece, Whatever the Cost”; July 2011, “The Greek Tragedy Has Gone on Too Long”; September 2011, “Back to Square One”.
The newspaper's editorial the day before yesterday was entitled: “Markets Run Scared, Political Impotence”. The newspaper denounced “the disarray at a Commission left speechless in Brussels and the European Parliament left on the sidelines”. This was an audacious affirmation given the paragraph that followed and which even claimed that “economists of all hues, who were previously sententious advisers, have been overtaken by events and reduced to wringing their hands at the irrationality of the markets”. The French newspaper pointed to “a congenital birth defect in the euro, a single currency without common economic government”. We are all aware that from the very beginning Jacques Delors vociferously denounced this shortcoming. Apparently, a journalist has discovered the remedy - “to go resolutely forward down the road of greater economic, financial, budgetary and therefore political federalism”. This is a wise and appropriate assertion to a public that has been unaware that this development has been seriously envisaged in the EU and has for some time been subject to a number of analyses and far-reaching projects (that have in fact been analysed correctly in Le Monde).
The debate left out. Conclusion: to accuse the European institutions of remaining silent is nonsense. We only have to read the report in our publication yesterday on the debate that took place on Wednesday in Strasbourg. I'll quote the first paragraph: “The three main institutions - the Council of Ministers, the European Commission and the European Parliament - expressed concern during a debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday 14 September about the deleterious impact of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis on Europe's credulity, casting doubt on its ability to take speedy, unified action to deal with it. The Commission and a number of MEPs said that the situation demanded a qualitative shift towards genuine economic and budget integration, based on the Community method.” We can see that there has definitely been an encouraging and unambiguous increase in awareness. Difficulties and differences are still very much pronounced but Europe is shifting. The question is why no one appears to realise this.
China and other BRIC countries tackling matter. Developments do not affect the EU alone but also the world at large, particularly China and the emerging countries. The Chinese authorities are increasingly concerned by the astronomical volumes of their dollar reserves and would like to develop their investments in euros. They have emphasised that the EU is their biggest trading partner. Obviously, China wants to purchase or have a stake in different areas of European wealth, and initiatives in this connection already exist. As for the emerging countries, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have announced that they are meeting on 22 September in Washington to discuss their possible support for the eurozone.
Main culprits. According to certain experts, problems involving the euro are mainly due to the behaviour displayed by British and American financial players. The City, Wall Street and, above all, the British press, are the main source of the rumours stoking up the markets. Nonetheless, the authorities in Washington are now concerned by the dangers of a global cataclysm and are determined to work with the Europeans to stabilise the situation. Everything would once more suggest that the real danger can be located in the “speculation” practised by the financial community. It is this that requires control and needs curbing. (FR/transl.fl)