European Dis-Union
In a November 16, 2010 speech, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy warned that the eurozone economic crisis threatened the very existence of the EU. “We’re in a survival crisis,” Van Rompuy said. “We all have to work together in order to survive with the euro zone, because if we don’t survive with the euro zone we will not survive with the European Union.”
It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. The European Union — the triumphant culmination of a drive for European economic and political union 50 years in the making — was intended to set a new standard for transnational government, an experiment in consensual empire-building and a regional precursor for an eventual global political merger. The euro was a potent economic symbol of European unification, replacing a raft of national currencies like the peseta, lira, franc, mark, and drachma, which had endured, in name at least, for centuries.
For a brief interlude, European unification seemed irresistible. The euro soared against other currencies, including the dollar, and political milestones like a European constitution moved ineluctably forward, popular resistance in countries like Denmark and Ireland notwithstanding.
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