Russia has changed its strategy and now seeks WTO membership (it has been the largest economy outside the WTO since China entry in 2001). Also wins bid for 2018 World Cup!
Some of the reactions FIFA's decision in Russia's win in the bid for WC 2018 (and WC 2022) seem to indicate that some countries seem to not have realised the world doesn't revolve around them anymore & there's a trend for a more balanced globalisation (BRICs etc)
WTO has blocked EU duties on Chinese screws. IMO this should serve the EU and its members as a cue to consider the correlation between the start of the Euro & China's entry into the WTO & how it affected the systemics of the EU Single Market (and thus contributed to the current "Euro crisis")
Dynamics such as these make the need for a United States of Europe (political union) urgent and override parochialist tendencies of/within some EU member states.
Thus I am not surprised that according to the recent "leaks", the Governor of a certain central bank thinks that the Euro crisis may accelerate political union in the EU, a view I have expressed many times this year.
2 comments:
The arguments for the creation of a political union in Europe are very powerful, whether such a goal is seen as saving the euro or furthering the continent in the global community.
But the EU as it presently exists must not be the foundation for such a union. The 2005 decision to ignore democracy as expressed in France and the Netherlands and the subsequent imposition of Lisbon against the presumed will of the majority of people is authoritarian. The CAP is at best morally suspect, at worst an outrageous crime. Institutions of the EU operate within a corrupting bureaucracy which serves the bureaucracy not the people. The EU seems beyond reform and should therefore be wound back before it mutates into something still more bureaucratic, more authoritarian, less democratic and less acountable.
I am a great enthusiast for the European ideal. That is why I want the EU to fail. The EU is betraying the most basic concepts of right action, the very values that our continent has developed over the centuries. This year we have seen Greece and Ireland both with impossible terms in their bailout - the well-being of people of these nations are being sacrificed as victims to an ideal. This is simply wrong.
The best case scenario seems to be that the euro will fail and take the EU with it - and after the mess (which will be dire) and from the ruins we build an organisation that serves the people of Europe, which is democratic, accountable, dedicated to the service of the half billion people of our continent.
Graeme, we have discussed these points at length on Twitter and I disagree with all your points.
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