A gulf is growing between France and Germany over the future of the eurozone.
Behind all the spin, smoke and fury of recent days, we see unfolding the greatest crisis in the history of the “European project”. What is emerging is a fundamental split which threatens to inflict on it by far the most serious reverse in its 62-year history. It is apt that this conflict should centre on what was always designed to be the supreme symbol of the drive to full European integration, the euro.
As Greece plunges into meltdown – its economy shrinking by more than a fifth, Athens burning, 200,000 businesses already closed or on the brink, unemployment approaching 25 per cent – it is clear that the EU is separating into two irreconcilable camps. On one hand, the defenders of the orthodoxy, led by the Commission and supported by France (which is exposed to a Greek default more than any other country), is battling to hold the line with another massive bail-out. They know that for Greece to leave the euro would be an unprecedented defeat for integration, with almost unimaginable consequences as other overborrowed countries follow suit. To avert this they are prepared to work as closely as possible with the puppet prime minister the EU has imposed on Athens to do its bidding.
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Booker: The European project is splitting apart at the very core (10),See Also:
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Afternoon Updates:
12:43 pm EST, February 19th, 2012 — Hundreds of thousands march against labour reforms in Spain
12:45 pm EST, February 19th, 2012 — Japan, China to Help Europe Solve Crisis
12:47 pm EST, February 19th, 2012 — Greece’s history of missed targets
12:49 pm EST, February 19th, 2012 – Do not humiliate the Greeks
12:54 pm EST, February 19th, 2012 — No plan B for Greek debt crisis
