A Europe Day message from the editor of Germany's most widely read weekly: "Who wants to be ruled from Brussels rather than from his or her own capital?"

On this Europe Day Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Germany's most widely read weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, has a message: 

So is Europe history now? We don’t know yet. But we do know one thing: that the experiment has failed in one sense because that wonderful dream from the 1950s — of up, up, and away — has collided with the nasty reality of the nation-state that will not fade away. And if truth be told, how many Frenchmen, Italians, Germans, Poles, and so on, will want to part with 2,000 years of history? Who wants to be ruled from Brussels rather than from his or her own capital?

Let me conclude with a prayer. Let’s pray that the inevitable crash of the euro, the most ambitious part of the experiment, will not bury the rest of the union. 

(boldening by NNoN)

PS

It is not difficult to agree with Joffe. The only thing I am not quite certain about is the wish "not to bury the rest of the union", because even after the crash of the euro, there remains a lot to be buried .....

Happy Europe Day!