Friday 3 June 2011

German chancellor Merkel is not telling the truth about the euro

On March 18 the chairman of the Eurogroup, Luxembourg´s PM Jean-Claude Juncker made the following statement:

The euro is stable and not in crisis, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday.
There are debt problems in some member states, Luxembourg's prime minister said at a conference here organized by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.
"The crisis is not a euro crisis," Juncker insisted.

Now, German chancellor Angela Merkel has repeated what Juncker said in March:

The euro isn't in crisis, although markets are uncertain whether struggling euro-zone economies can become competitive, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.
"We don't have a problem with the euro as such," Merkel said in a speech during a two-day visit to Singapore.
"It is a stable currency particularly vis-a-vis the dollar. It is quite strong--sometimes too strong for us as an exporting nation," she said through an interpreter. "We have problems with certain member states and their debts."
The root of the euro-zone "debt problem" is "a competitiveness problem because the competitiveness of the member states in the euro area is too disparate and some of them too weak," she said. To "overcome this crisis," she said. "we need to boost competitiveness and we need to put fiscal responsibility right at the heart of our efforts."

Read the entire article here

Looking at the euro from a very narrow angle you may - as Merkel and Juncker do - be able to pretend that there is no euro crisis. But, of course, both Merkel and Juncker know that the reality of the euro co-operation is quite another matter. Without the euro, the problems of  Greece, Ireland and Portugal would not be Eurogroup problems. When you, as a result of a political decision, squeeze countries, which are economically, culturally and politically in a totally different situation, into a common currency area - without having a common finance and economic policy (which would mean a federal European state that voters do not want), you end up having a crisis.

Therefore, Merkel, Juncker, and all the other leaders, who maintain that there is no euro crisis, are dishonest and deserve to be punished for it at future elections.

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