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Will HuttonSunday September 5, 2004 The Observer

With all eyes fixed on the American presidential elections, the scale of the looming crisis in France and Germany has gone largely unremarked. But it may so change the political geography of Europe that British arguments for and against the EU will be made redundant. A pervasive sense of decline in both countries, only partially justified but none the less virulent, is destabilising not just the structures of the EU - but the political systems of France and Germany.

Last week in France, charismatic finance minister Nicolas Sarkozy resigned from the government in order to challenge for the leadership of President Chirac’s UMP party, despairing of what is seen in France as a do-nothing regime that is fiddling while the country burns. The economy is mired in low growth and high unemployment; government spending at 54 per cent of GDP can go no higher…

To imagine that Britain will be immune from this is absurd; what happens in mainland Europe will directly impact upon us as it has throughout our history. What is needed is an understanding that if European states don’t hang together they will hang separately - and that because the European Union is the best we have, we’d better make it work.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comm…1297576,00.html

What a strange argument, France and Germany are in trouble because their governments are tied to the EU, and must abide by EU rules, this is causing them problems, so we must all make sure that we stick together in the EU! Why? Because the EU is the best we have?

If the complaint is that the French and German governments are fiddling while the country burns? Exactly how much power do these governments still have to manage their own economy, the EU Bank sets the interest rates the EU sets the employment laws and environment laws and so on. Why blame the governments when they are probably doing the best they can within the confines of the EU.

Is it any wonder that the German economy is in trouble, apart from the great expense of East Germany, Germany is the biggest paymaster to the EU, money is pouring out of that country to finance the rest of the EU countries.

The EU is causing stagnation, it makes its rules in a vacuum, it is not responsible for the costs its rules entail, the member states are, as they are obviously struggling under this yolk we should consider removing it rather than whipping those who do not have the power. How about putting a moratorium on all new EU laws for the nest five years, then see how France and Germany are doing.
It seems to me as if lefty leaning Will Hutton is trying to bat for the up coming EU Constitution which will have the effect of giving more power to the EU and even less to the French and Germans.