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Reinventing Europe: Christine Ockrent

Date: 22nd May 2012 | Author: Christine Ockrent,

As part of ECFR's 'Reinvention of Europe' project, we are running a series of responses from leading thinkers and academics to Mark Leonard's recent paper 'Four scenarios for the reinvention of Europe'. The paper outlined four possible routes towards solving Europe's current crisis, and argued that Europe's main challenge was to solve the acute euro crisis without exacerbating the chronic crisis of declining European power. In the latest in this series we hear from the journalist Christine Ockrent.

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The EU is the product of political will. Forged by a small elite who did not consider it necessary at the time to involve the people, it has grown into a complex, incremental process which political leaders now seek to control exclusively on an inter-governmental basis.

Whatever the need for institutional imagination which we all agree upon and discuss regularly, I believe the

Reinventing Europe: Hans Eichel on Franco-German leadership

Date: 17th May 2012 | Author: Hans Eichel ,

Categories: Reinventing Europe,

As part of ECFR's Reinvention project, we are running a series of blog posts looking at particular thematic issues facing Europe as it attempts to deal with the financial crisis.In the third of this series, Hans Eichel looks at the legitimacy of Franco-German leadership.

Merkozy was necessary to maintain the cohesion of Europe and, in particular, of the currency union. The stability-orientated “Northern Europeans”, who have to enter into a significant risk to ensure that the “Southern Europeans” can finance their borrowing at tolerable conditions, can only be kept on board if they are sure that their idea of sound financial policy is shared throughout Europe. Hence the rescue programmes for Greece, the EFSF and ESM with strict conditions and hence the fiscal pact. Merkozy also meant accepting that the ECB could ultimately perform its role unrestrictedly and act under its own

Reinventing Europe: Jean Pisani-Ferry on crisis economics

Date: 15th May 2012 | Author: Jean Pisani-Ferry,

Categories: Reinventing Europe,

As part of ECFR's Reinvention project, we are running a series of blog posts looking at particular thematic issues facing Europe as it attempts to deal with the financial crisis. In the second of the series Jean Pisani-Ferry looks at the economic side of the crisis.

In the two years since the outbreak of the Greek crisis, much has been done to rebuild the architecture of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). There is now a crisis management regime in place and crisis prevention has been strengthened through the six-pack legislation and the new fiscal treaty. This is by no means a trivial achievement. But more is needed, for two reasons, one systemic and one macroeconomic: first, the very concept of a bare-bones EMU, whose only two pillars are monetary and fiscal, has not survived the crisis; second, Europe still lacks a consistent strategy to tackle the adjustment

Reinventing Europe: Tibor Dessewffy on populism in Hungary

Date: 10th May 2012 | Author: Tibor Dessewffy,

Categories: € View, Reinventing Europe,

As part of ECFR's Reinvention project, we are running a series of blog posts looking at particular thematic issues facing Europe as it attempts to deal with the financial crisis. In the first in this series, Tibor Dessewffy examines the attraction of populist politics in Hungary.

In his paper on future scenarios for Europe, Mark Leonard convincingly argues that the major tensions in both the European and the domestic arenas are between technocratic and populist forces. The financial crisis has certainly led to a more integrated technocratic system of crisis management, but the uncertainty over whether measures to control the crisis will succeed is also creating support for populist forces.

The public reception to populist claims varies greatly across Europe. In Hungary, for instance, a speech was given in March arguing that “We will not be a colony”. This speech, however, was

Euroland elections

Date: 10th May 2012 | Author: Ulrike Guérot,

Categories: Germany in Europe, Reinventing Europe,

The interesting thing about living in the US is to experience a change in perspective. Here, Europe is often perceived as a united entity. In the Huffington Post for example there were several articles which reported last weeks’ elections in Europe – in France, Greece, Armenia, Serbia, Schleswig-Holstein, Italy - as if they were more or less all in the same “country” - a country called 'Euroland'. Moreover, the differences between countries or the sort of elections – local, regional or national – seemed only minor details.

The New York Times focused more on the elections in France and Greece, but it also featured a piece on ‘elections in the Eurozone’. As always, the NYT also had a slightly ironical take on the elections, referring to the lusty nature of French politics.

Last week I had the chance to talk to an investment banker in New York City. We not only talked about the

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