The euro, the model and the power - L'euro, le modèle et la puissance

The Euro, the model, the power, the latest book by Pierre Defraigne argues that the EU is facing not one, but three interlinked crises, within which both European unity and the possibility of democracy are being played out. First is the systemic crisis of Western market-capitalism. The symptoms of this are excessive debt, zero growth, and, politically and financially, unsustainable structural unemployment. Europe only will solve this by mutualising and restructuring debts, whose levels are incompatible with desired growth rates for the foreseeable future. The EU needs, above all else, to take a continent-wide perspective to effectively regulate global market capitalism, especially with regard industrial and financial gigantism, and the practice of tax arbitrage by mobile capital (big companies and big fortunes). Secondly, there is a crisis of euro governance, brought about by the lack of robust mechanisms to recycle surpluses and deficits via a central budget and banking union. And finally the European identity crisis; that of an EU28 which has been subjected to the shock of massive, hastily implemented enlargements, and thus increasingly heterogeneous. The recovery from these crises, must start in the euro-zone itself since it provides the pioneering kernel of political unity, and should be guided by two initiatives: the convergence of national economies towards a common social model based on innovation and the reduction of inequalities; and the move towards a European defence system within NATO, a prerequisite for genuine foreign policy. The political integration of Europe, built around a common defence and a social model encapsulated in the common currency is the only way to regulate global capitalism and to deal directly, and on equal footing, with emerging continental powers, without depending on the United States. Political unity is the very condition upon which the possibility of democracy in Europe rests.