Monday 30 March 2020

Wishful thinking by the Eurosceptics... but it would be ironic if it happened

From The Daily Mail:

Coronavirus could mark the end of the EU 'European project' if member states cannot agree to share rescue package debt, the bloc's economics commissioner has warned.

Paolo Gentiloni, a former prime minister of Italy, said it was essential for Germany, the bloc's most powerful member, to come to an agreement over debt with states which have been hardest hit.

He told Italian radio station Radio Capital: "The European project is in danger of dying out... It is clear that if the economic differences between European countries, rather than shrinking in the face of a crisis like this, instead increase... it will be very difficult to keep the European project together."


All empires fall apart eventually, or else there wouldn't be so many individual countries, most of which were once provinces in somebody else's empire or part of a different country. What triggers the final collapse is often some random external event, like the Japanese military successes in World War II prompting British colonies from India to Singapore to seek independence. Or a change in the weather leading to a famine, or whatever.

Fast forward to a history lesson in a few decades, history teachers will be struggling to explain that the single event which ultimately led to most southern Member States leaving the bloc was somebody eating a bat in China (yes, that probably never happened, but it'll do as shorthand).

6 comments:

Lola said...

Indeed. Pax Britannica was replaced by Pax Americana. And latterly an attempt at Pax Europa. How's that working out?

benj said...

Butterfly effect= eating a bat in China effect. Nice one.

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, the US empire is still there and is most resilient, being a multi-layered web of military threats and military assistance, bribes, political interference, genuine investment and crass exploitation. They have the critical mass which means they can always bully the next biggest, and hence everybody else. For example FATCA and CRS.

B, the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings could trigger a hurricane was an analogy. It was never meant to literally apply to the actual weather. But politically, it clearly does happen. Only with people eating bats.

Lola said...

MW Quite. An USA global hegemony. I'm pleased you referenced FATCA a pet hate of mine.

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, exactly. It's not as bad as what the Iraqis or Afghans have been subjected to (understatement of the decade), but what the hell business is it of the Yanks if an English company wants to open a bank account with an English bank? What the hell business is it of the Yanks if an English business wants to sell batteries to Iran?

Bayard said...

"but what the hell business is it of the Yanks if an English company wants to open a bank account with an English bank? What the hell business is it of the Yanks if an English business wants to sell batteries to Iran"

Since we are but one of the colonies of their empire, it is their business.