(Note: the headline above is the one used in today’s print edition–KSH).
The European Union is an extraordinary experiment in shared sovereignty, creating a zone of peace that now stretches from Britain to the Balkans. The union of 27 countries is the world’s most formidable economic bloc, incorporating 491 million people in an integrated market that produces nearly a third more than the United States.
But the global economic crisis has made it clear that Europe remains less than the sum of its parts.
The crisis has presented the European Union with its greatest challenge, but even many committed Europeanists believe that the alliance is failing the test. European leaders, their focus on domestic politics, disagree sharply about what to do to combat the slump. They have feuded over how much to stimulate the economy. They argue about whether the European Central Bank should worry more about the deep recession or future inflation. And they have rushed to protect jobs in their home markets at the expense of those in other member countries.
I have said this for years, but it bears airing again. The economy is the Achilles’ heel of the European Union. As long as times are rolling and its in each individual countries best economic interest to be part of the European Union, then all is great.
The minute the economy is not so good is the minute the EU wilts. If individual countries begin to think its in their best interest to do things their own way, they will not hesitate to pull back from the EU and do their own thing.
We witnessed this in this latest EU parliamentary election. When push comes to shove, you do what’s in your own national best interest. It’s called self preservation, where you are most loyal to the local unit (i.e. country or region) and not to some greater, more nebulous, “Europe.”