{"id":10287,"date":"2022-10-27T19:02:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T16:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=10287"},"modified":"2022-10-27T19:02:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T16:02:03","slug":"the-france-germany-disagreement-leads-to-an-inward-orientation-of-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=10287","title":{"rendered":"The France-Germany Disagreement Leads to an Inward Orientation of the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a crucial for the E.U. period, the Franco-German axis \u2013 on which the European edifice rests \u2013 does not seem to be working. The political misunderstanding, both in France and in Germany, reinforces the introversion tendencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In France, Macron secured a second five-year presidential term, hailed as a victory for Europe, but now faces a popular protest that is difficult to control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large increase in the cost of fuel has drastically reduced the real income of most French people. The strike actions in the refineries prove to be of great importance. They cause fuel shortages, make the economic and social daily life of millions of French people difficult and are likely to prepare the ground for tough strike struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macron does not have the momentum he had at the start of his first five-year presidential term. It is typical that in order to secure the second presidential five-year term, he put the insurance reform he had announced on hold, as a result of which the fiscal deficit is maintained at high levels and the public debt continues its dangerous upward trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Germany, the Social Democrat chancellor Scholz is seen as a not particularly dynamic leader, while the constant effort to reach an agreement between the government partners \u2013 Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals \u2013 does not always have the desired result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the E.U. the voices denouncing Germany for going it alone are getting stronger, especially after the government’s decision to spend 200 billion euros to get the German economy through the financial crisis with the smallest possible losses.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Many EU governments they protest, believing that Germany’s aggressive use of its fiscal potential gives it a competitive advantage over other European economies. There is also a controversy over whether there will ultimately be additional common European borrowing \u2013 as was done with the pandemic and the European Recovery Fund \u2013 in order to exit the E.U. from the energy and economic crisis. The answer of the Germans, like the Dutch, is negative, which strengthens the tensions inside the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news is also quite unpleasant from Spain and Poland. The coalition of Socialists and Podemos in Spain has taken impressive pro-people measures, but inflation hovers around 10%, dropping the popularity of the government partners. Socialist Prime Minister Sanchez’s latest initiative is to impose an extraordinary tax on the “skyrocketing profits” of Spanish banks due to a sharp rise in interest rates. Representatives of Spanish banks are protesting and have raised the issue with the European Central Bank (ECB) on the grounds that Spain’s government policy could undermine their profitability after difficult years of adjustment and limit their capital adequacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland is facing inflation of more than 15%. Her Conservative government is under serious political and electoral pressure from the opposition for the first time in a long time. Polish society is also under pressure from the two million Ukrainian refugees, while the dispute between Warsaw and Brussels over the independence of the judiciary and respect for the rule of law is currently depriving Poland of European funding of tens of billions of euros under the European Recovery Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is, therefore, no government of a large European country on the European political horizon that is doing well or is going to do well and is able to lead initiatives to deal with the big problems together.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Balance exercises between the European institutions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the lack of positive political dynamics, we end up in balancing exercises between the European institutions with little or no practical effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indicative of the Euro-incomprehensibility is the anxious attempt of the president of the European Commission, Von der Leyen, to formulate more widely accepted proposals for the common response to the energy crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president of the European Commission ends up repeating more or less the same, without any progress being observed in the implementation of any policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Parliament has the most advanced positions in dealing with the crisis, but also the least influence on developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Council exploits successive European crises to strengthen transnational cooperation at the expense of European institutional cooperation. Diametrically opposed views are expressed in the Council on almost all issues of great European interest and any compromises are more verbal than substantive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything shows that the E.U. it will continue to move, especially in the energy sector, with slow and hesitant steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Commission has announced a tax on “skyrocketing profits” to raise \u20ac140bn to support the underprivileged who struggle to cover the costs of heating and commuting, but most governments are dragging their feet on the matter. They are slow to make and above all to implement the decisions and constantly limit the calculation of the “skyrocketing profits” that can be taxed.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The much-hyped joint European supply of natural gas will also be ineffective. It will come into effect from the summer and will \u2013 in the first phase \u2013 concern a small percentage of the reserves for the winter of 2023. It should be noted that Greece has switched to natural gas without even having invested in the creation of huge special storage areas. In this particular matter it is mainly based on the infrastructure of Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Commission is trying to satisfy the member states that declare that they do not have the necessary fiscal space to make large-scale investments in the green transition, at the same time the member states that refuse to assume joint financial burdens, as in the case of the pandemic and European Recovery Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He therefore resorts to the creative accounting of Brussels and devises additional funds for REPower EU, which may reach 40 billion euros from the rest of the previous programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, this cannot be considered an effective solution, it has more to do with the internal functioning of the institutional microcosm of the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funds are usually tied up in the context of the tangled negotiation of power, while no serious attempt has been made to raise them, as for example by issuing a green bond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With most funds going to “friendly” specialist entrepreneurs and the bureaucracy struggling to get up to speed (Greece), it is very difficult to support an increase in relevant European funds. In addition, there are enormous difficulties in promoting specific programs, even relatively simple ones to implement, due to a lack of qualified companies and qualified personnel, especially technical ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a crucial for the E.U. period, the Franco-German axis \u2013 on which the European edifice rests \u2013 does not seem to be working….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[818,390],"tags":[708,25,474,489,973,2387],"class_list":["post-10287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-politics","tag-commission","tag-eu","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-politics","tag-von-der-leyen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10292,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10287\/revisions\/10292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}