Too many contradictions
The year’s last EU summit provided ample headwind for chancellor Merkel. The usual suspects were joined by Italy and council president Tusk in accusing her of setting different standards.
In oder to keep control of the situation, Merkel had to resort to Austria’s representation in Brussels, where she gracefully pardonned all her sins to Turkey and crowned austrian chancellor Faymann her new second in command.
In the actual council meeting she was facing a strong wind. Tusk publicly condemned the second north stream pipeline that should raise Germany’s gas imports from Russia.
Italian’s prime minister Renzi denounced her double standards – after all she was instrumental in preventing the planned south stream pipeline to Italy.
Merkel is softening the planned banking union as well, at the specific request of Germany’s savings and Raiffeisen banks that insist on not being a part of the guaranteed deposit union.
As per usual procedure Tusk and Renzi caved in and their statements disappeared from the offical minutes. But German Europe’s contradictions don’t go away, they grow and grow:
- While north stream continues proceeding, Merkel condemned all 28 to extend the Russia sanctions. There was no desire to debate.
- While Merkel threatens those that do not join her refugee policy, she is sucking up to Britain’s Cameron by offering contract amendments that would allow him to fend off EU citizen.
- While the chancellor praises the German alliance to the Peshmerga fighters in the counter terrorist struggle, she’s perfectly fine with her new partner Turkey slaughtering kurdish ‘terrorists’.
These discrepancies illustrate the worsening crisis in Europe, but many other EU member states see it mainly as the expression of a double standard.
Unless Merkel threads very carefully, she could lose control in 2016…
Ein Europäer
14. Februar 2016 @ 12:58
Well lets Talk about the Italian Job, or better said the Italian banking crisis.
We are now at the next phase of this as it becomes clear that there’s these massive problems with the italo banks and depositors are pulling their money out. And in pulling their money out they contract the asset base they force them to have higher reserves banks cut back on lending and it becomes a nasty spiral.
Now the question is how safe are deposits in Italian banks? And the EU came out with a very interesting claim which basically categorized depositors as investors. That’s wild, because you put your money into a bank and it’s supposed to be safe.
THE EU had this concept of not bail-outs, but bail-ins. And with bail-ins, thats basically said that the depositors and investors in the bank deal with the problem. That’s what happened in Cyprus.
So the EU are desperately trying to find a way to bail out the italian banks without bailing out the banks. Schäuble,Dijelbloom, Jens Weidmann, the FAZ troglodytes and alikes are absolutely opposed to any sort of plan that requires EU money to Garantie these loans. They also are opposed to the ECB printing money doing a TARP,like the FED did.
Now we have Monetary Sadomasochists holding the line against any help for the Italian banks, the Italian gov. it didn’t have the right to create some sort of deposit guarantee program and you’ve got this horrific fight between Renzi, who is looking at his banking system coming apart and) you also have other European bankers who say we must have some sort of intervention here and Schäuble-Weidamann-FAZ and alikes who are holding tight, they are trying to create another Cyprus.
Good luck with that.