A few positive observations. Only the future will be able to tell us whether the initiatives and compromises reached by the eurozone summit last night will effectively tackle the eurozone crisis and enable countries experiencing difficulties, particularly Greece, to overcome their problems. Faced with increasing panic and gloomy forecasts over the past few days, I felt considerably isolated when I said that I thought that the results would be positive. My efforts to remain optimistic with regard to the immediate problems and situation involving European construction in general may have appeared somewhat pathetic to a number of our readers. Nonetheless, what encouraged me to go against the grain was not simply the conviction that the European dream could not dissolve in this way and that it was not true that everything was going wrong in Europe, but also my impression that those announcing imminent and catastrophic disaster on the eve of the summit were not telling the whole story, especially players from the banking community. I got the impression that I was witnessing the habitual effort made by the global giants to make a last minute play to obtain the maximum advantages and concessions, especially of a purely financial nature. I'll return to this point later (point 4).
Our publication provides a number of reports on the technical analyses, the response from the political community, comments made by the experts (which often tend to go in the opposite direction) and the reaction from the financial world. I would like to emphasise a number of positive observations.
1) “European economic governance” is being put into practice. This principle is now agreed on, including the fact that it will operate on a majority voting basis. Years and years have been necessary for the most economically powerful countries to accept not only what they have rejected for so long but also for them to become some of the most enthusiastic advocates for this policy. The imbalance between the economic and monetary dimensions of economic and monetary union has, from the outset, been denounced by Jacques Delors and has now finally been corrected. I don't know whether Mr Delors disapproves of the way in which this decision was obtained or whether he will criticise the shortcomings and unresolved issues that still persist but the principle has now been agreed. Let's hope that the shortcomings and mistakes will be corrected. We will be returning to this issue at a later stage.
2) The principle of decisions being made by majority voting is making progress. I am aware that shortcomings exist in this respect, particularly the majority voting rule often applied in an intergovernmental context to the detriment of Community procedures. Many aspects still need to be corrected or clarified but the demand for majority decisions in essential domains is gradually becoming stronger.
3) “National” anomalies in the spotlight. The obligation to get rid of excessive budgetary deficits has led to the majority of member states applying (or at least developing) austerity programmes that have illustrated enormous failings and errors made at a level of national government. The abuses committed by the political class itself are sometimes quite staggering. Even if we ignore Greece for the time being (which cooked the books in the beginning in an effort to be admitted to the eurozone), how many other irregularities and how much waste was confirmed (links with tax havens, in particular) or discovered! The austerity programmes often correspond (despite the protests made by those affected by them) to a real clean-up operation of irregular behaviour and messy procedures, which the clean-up operation in the countries concerned have Europe to thank for.
4) Cleaning up the financial world. References in the first paragraph to the behaviour of the banking lobby do not refer to positions of principle but mainly to the effort to obtain or safeguard the maximum amount of money. What really was involved in the night-time battle of the banks to keep their level of exposure to a minimum in participating in the Greek debt rescue operation? They acted as if they had never been responsible themselves for imposing outrageous interest rates to finance this debt. They also acted as if the only justification for such rates was to accept the risk of the debtor's insolvency! The tactic of over-blowing the risks of failure, in an effort to obtain the maximum benefits, is a well-known one. The detailed report in our publication yesterday indicates that “the financial lobby put up resistance… the session was interrupted for a long time, during which Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel warned the financial lobby that a pure and simple Greek default was possible”. This is how this pressure group eventually accepted the provisions agreed upon, on the understanding that the establishment that actually do the job of managing savings and financing the economy will, to a large extent, be helped to overcome their difficulties. The division between the two categories of banks remains one of the eurozone projects, even if the British refuse to participate in this project.
For the time being, my conclusion is simple, united Europe is alive and kicking and will continue to prove this in the future. (FR/transl.fl).