The eurozone is not responsible for American and British problems. Continental Europe is beginning to feel “Enough is enough”. The dominance of the English language, perfectly understandable and inevitable, has meant that the people of continental Europe have been assailed this Thursday by news from London and the United States (and, to an extent, Asia) on what those responsible for managing the euro should do. To read the reports, one would say that it is those in charge of the euro who are responsible for the mess the world is in. Let us be clear: the press and other US and British media are doing their job, and doing it very well; they are genuinely free, they demonstrate courage when needed and do not hesitate to criticise their own countries' politicians when necessary. I am not referring, then, either to the commentaries or information sources from across the Channel or across the Atlantic but to the space given in the continental press to the positions of Messrs Obama and Cameron on euro business when, perhaps for reasons of space or time, the positions and explanations from the Community bodies responsible for managing the single currency (of which the British, I would remind you, are not part) were not allowed similar coverage.
What Messrs Obama and Cameron are saying. This Thursday's continental media were, then, full of the criticism of US and British political circles of what the authorities in charge of the euro are doing: an avalanche of accusations, of Germany, in particular. Here is how the most widely read Brussels daily, Le Soir, reported on events: “Barack Obama and David Cameron have called on the EU to stop shilly-shallying and to agree an immediate plan to exit the crisis. … Messrs Obama and Cameron, who fear the fall-out from a worsening of the European crisis on their economies and financial institutions, want action”. A British spokesperson said that Messrs Obama and Cameron had “agreed that an immediate plan was needed to resolve the crisis and restore market confidence, and a long-term strategy that will ensure a strong single currency”. In addition, Mr Obama has spoken by telephone to Mr Monti and Ms Merkel; Mr Cameron was to meet the German chancellor on Thursday and is calling for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to have the resources it needs and not just the €500 billion proposed. One has to wonder if he and Mr Obama are not looking for a seat at the euro management table. One commentator wondered this morning if the main concern of the US and British leaders was not their respective opinion poll standings, blaming their poor approval ratings on the management of the euro.
Mario Draghi's response. The ECB president acknowledged that the situation is serious (though not, in his opinion, as serious as when the American bank Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, plunging the world into financial crisis in 2008) and that the eurozone no doubt has to bear its share of the responsibility - along with other countries, the United States, for example, because of the level of its indebtedness. At the next G20 meeting in Mexico City, each country will have to face up to its own difficulties and its share of the responsibility in the quest for a general commitment to international collaboration. Furthermore, according to Mr Draghi, the responsibility of the EU is not always down to monetary management: “Monetary policy cannot make up for the inertia of other institutions.” Interpreting these comments by the ECB president, some observers have pointed out that, in the United States, unemployment stands at 8.2%: no president has ever been re-elected with joblessness at such a level. In the United Kingdom, Mr Cameron is 15 points behind his Labour counterpart Ed Miliband in opinion polls. And above all, without the speculative seepage of money from the eurozone to London, British Treasury bonds would have much higher rates. It is the attitude of the City of London, permanently against the single currency, which is keeping the level down.
Those in charge of the eurozone continue to believe that their over-indebted countries have to radically and rapidly reduce their level of indebtedness. The zone will continue and step up its efforts on the twin-pronged approach of budgetary consolidation and economic recovery. It will not give up on either of these requirements in deference to the domestic difficulties being experienced by Messrs Obama and Cameron.
(FR/transl.rt)