Well, the first piece of news was utterly predictable. Great Britain has been shafted again by the European Union. Childe Cameron to the dark tower came and returned with nothing.
In my last post on this subject I said in conclusion ‘I don't want to prejudge the man [Mr Cameron] but his record to date has not been encouraging. Let's see.’. An anonymous contributor commented ‘By all means pre-judge Cameron. You will be right. He will go for a bit of grandstanding ... then roll over and have his tummy tickled by the eurocrats and his new best buddies in the Liberal party.'
It seems likely that the eurocrats asked for a 5.9% increase in their budget knowing that someone (probably Cameron) would have a go and they have settled for 2.9% which is still far too high.
Then Chancellor Merkel said that she didn’t think a change to the Lisbon Treaty would be necessary – Clause 48 permits minor tweaks – so Cameron has nothing to negotiate with.
What has happened with the proposed change is that so far governments have carried the can when a eurozone economy has started to implode. Now bondholders – people who have invested in Greek debt, for example, confident that those hard working Germans would bail them out – will also have to take a hit. Countries will be permitted to reschedule their debt. The result of this will be that peripheral highly-indebted countries will find it harder to raise money, exacerbating the inequality in the EU. It is only fair, I suppose, but the next mini-crisis will see them hit hard, at a time when the strong euro will affect their exports.
If it is bad for the peripheral countries, it is worse for Mr Cameron, who looks as if he has been out-thought and out-manoeuvred by the French and Germans. There is a strong eurosceptic streak in his party and they are not going to be pleased. His best hope is that constitutional courts in the smaller countries decide they need a referendum.
No comments:
Post a Comment