Defusing the debt crisis requires more solidarity from EU countries but the loss of sovereignty implied can only be done silently so that it won’t arouse suspicion of anti-federalists, writes AFP. The solution to overcome the crisis is to have “more Europe, not less,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel Friday to conclude a summit Italy-France-Germany-Spain in Rome. “We must send a signal and get closer to a political union. We want to work at a more important political union”, she insisted.
EU President Herman Van Rompuy was appointed to prepare a report on ways to increase integration in the EU. In his conclusions that he will present at the summit of EU leaders on 28 and 29 June in Brussels, he “is very ambitious, with concrete ideas,” said a European official for AFP. “He bases this integration on an economic union, bank union, budget union and a political union”.
Mario Monti, the Italian head of government, with a federalist orientation, also support this approach. “In order to overcome the crisis of the euro area and European economy, the advantage of integration is necessary,” he said Friday. “With a federal Europe, we would not have this discontinuity in the decision making process,” said Italian Foreign Minister, Enzo Moavero. But federalism is “a very sensible concept in some countries” because it means ceding some parts of national sovereignty to European higher courts, warns a European official. Britain does not want to hear about it. France is very reluctant to give up its sovereignty.
There will be “no transfer of sovereignty without improving solidarity”, French President Francois Hollande also warned in a joint press conference in Rome. “In Europe there is always a great enthusiasm for sharing the hardships, but many reservations when it comes to ceding sovereignty at a European scale,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s entourage.
These reserves are to be considered. “The word federalism has not been used in the document that Herman Van Rompuy will present because we don’t want to awaken old demons,” said an European official. “President Francois Hollande doesn’t want to revive” open wounds in France after the failure of the referendum on European constitution in 2005, he added. In the Netherlands, where voters have also rejected the draft of the European Constitution, early parliamentary elections are set to September 12 “and the debate should not turn to” institutional future of the EU, insisted that European official.
Francois Hollande planned to advancing “step by step”. He recalled this at the meeting in Rome. “Giving up sovereignty will be built according to the mechanisms of sovereignty that we could find,” he said.
Reply