The eu agrees on war, but not bail-outs
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskNext month will mark a decade since Mario Draghi, then president of the European Central Bank , promised to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. The effectiveness of the spell seems finally to be wearing off. The euro zone is not yet in crisis.
Start with the response to covid. The joint procurement of vaccines by the bloc’s 27 countries got the most headlines. But even more notable was the setting up in July 2020 of a €750bn fund, known as Next Generation, which resulted in large transfers of money from richer countries in the union to poorer ones. Forgotten, for a time, were the familiar squabbles pitting tight-fisted northern Europeans against supposedly spendthrift southerners.
The case for unity over Ukraine is more contested. Hawkish leaders in eastern Europe think their counterparts farther west—Emmanuel Macron in France and Olaf Scholz in Germany most of all—are far too soft on Vladimir Putin, Russia’s despot. But beyond the odd verbal volley, the’s 27 member states have acted cohesively. They unanimously agreed on six packages of sanctions against Russia, and have sent lots of arms and cash to Kyiv.
And while the politics between countries may have become more harmonious, the opposite is true domestically. Central to any grand European bargain needed to stem a future currency crisis will be a confident Germany, willing to lead northern Europe into loosening the purse-strings. But Mr Scholz looks indecisive atop a three-way coalition, and is on the back foot in Europe given his party’s past ties to Russia.
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