EUROPEAN SCENARIOS

MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI

What will happen to Greece and will Europe stop existing? These are commonly asked questions not only in the institutions of the European Union. Will financial troubles of milliard euro of one of Euroland members destroy ideological EU puzzle? It is better to direct the ear towards where the pulse of decisions is heard. From the formal point of view, this is Brussels, but, practically, these are Berlin and Paris. After a Greek referendum there are various scenarios made. In Germany, the public opinion is being scared with the outbreak of a war. Most media comments in his country are summoned up to the simple message: the Greek bankruptcy causes dismantling the whole euro sphere, and if the euro currency, which is the symbol of the European unity, stops existing, also the European Union will stop existing. As a result, peace will be automatically endangered, which the Union has been assigning to itself. The tension between Athens and Berlin – the biggest creditor of Greece – often dominates over the European vision. In fact, Greece has already gone bankrupt, not paying off another installment of loan to the International Currency Fund. Despite that, the chief of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker still wants to talk with the authorities of Greece. He announced it in the European Parliament in Strasburg, where also the prime minister of Greece Aleksis Cipras spoke. The enlivened discussion brought in very little, and the chief of the European Council Donald Tusk gave a four-day ultimatum to the Greeks. The deadline expires after publishing the text. The Greeks want neither to pay or come out of the euro sphere. They hope for depreciation of at least some of their debts, similarly as the Germans’ debt was cancelled after the second world war. All this irritates the German public opinion which opts for removing Greece from the euroland. In case of leaving the euro sphere, Greece will automatically be removed from the European Union. In its act of despair, it demands damages from Germany, for losses connected with the Second World War, which, according to it, are nearly equal to the whole current debt of the country towards the Three Countries. As we find out from the eavesdropping of European politician, they have already come to terms with leaving the euro-sphere by Greece. As a result of the Grexit, the country would return to its own currency – and, as economists envisage, it would rebound from financial troubles. Getting off the EU ballast, the Greek economy, in the perspective of a few years, may start prospering, giving an example to other EU countries, how to get out of a crisis on one’s own. And this would be the biggest catastrophe for the Union.

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„Niedziela” 29/2015

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl