As the Euro crisis staggers from one crisis to the next, it's worth taking a look at some facts regarding the nature of why the Euro was created. Next time a politician tries to claim that the EU is a trading block which allows Britain's interests to be preserved, you can always remind them that everyone across the English Channel seems to think differently.
Take Hans Tietmeyer, the President of the Bundesbank in 1991, for example. He noted that "a European currency will lead to member nations transferring their sovereignty over financial and wage policy as well as monetary affairs. It is an illusion to think that states can hold on to their autonomy". His statement is quite clear – sovereignty will be lost by joining the Euro. But how much sovereignty? Let's ask Wim Duisenberg, ex-President of the European Central Bank. "The process of monetary union goes hand in hand, must go hand in hand, with political integration and ultimately political union. EMU is…a stepping stone on the way to a united Europe." That is definitive.
Gerhard Schroeder, former German Chancellor and an architect of monetary union, also had this to say (on the 30th August 1999): "The introduction of the common currency was in no way just an economic decision. Monetary Union is demanding that we Europeans press ahead resolutely with political integration."
In case we believe that this is all a German view point, lets throw Sir Edward George, former Governor of the Bank of England, into the mix. In April 2000, he made it clear that any move to scrap the Pound as Britain's currency would be "fundamentally a political rather than an economic issue" and would involve "ceding control over important aspects of public policy".
The former Spanish Prime Minister, Filipe Gonzales, in 1998 also had this to say: "The single currency is the greatest abandonment of sovereignty since the foundation of the European Community….It is a decision of an essentially political nature. We need this United Europe…we must never forget that the euro is an instrument for this project."
From the start Europe has been a political project to unite the continent. Former French President, and author of the European Constitution, Valerie Giscard D'Estaing and his friend, former Chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Schmidt, have both been clear on this. In the International Herald Tribune in October 1997, Mr Schmidt said "One must never forget that monetary union, which the two of us (Giscard and he) were the first to propose more than a decade ago, is ultimately a political project."
And the last quote we will leave to Romano Prodi, former President of the European Commission, speaking to the European Parliament on 13th October 1999. It has just about everything you could need, including references to ancient Rome. "We must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single economy, a single political entity…For the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire we have the opportunity to unite Europe".
This is just one collection of quotes from the people who built, operated and ran the European Union and the Euro project. Whatever British politicians say, these are the facts. And one thing is very clear – the Euro is a political project, and because of that, it will not fail. Yes, the Eurozone may get smaller, and a two-speed Europe probably will emerge, but whatever suffering is caused, as long as the political will remains, and Merkel and Sarkozy have shown that it does, then the Euro is safe.
The questions remain for those outside, like Britain. How much longer will the public buy the line that "we can influence Europe by being in Europe" when we are clearly in the second tier? And how much longer can the political parties and governments that form in Westminster go on saying that the EU is a trading block? Let's hope, for not too much longer.
