European Financial Leaders Want a Smaller, Hard-core Superstate

“Now is the time for a Europe of two speeds.” That was the assertion of German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil ahead of yesterday’s virtual meeting between finance and economic ministers from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

These leaders, representing Europe’s six largest economies, discussed raw materials supplies, the euro currency, unifying financial markets, and military spending, according to the meeting’s invitation letter.

Bible prophecy shows they will succeed in all these goals.

For decades, European leaders have debated the idea of organizing Europe into an inner core of nations willing to more rapidly and more fully consolidate, and an outer orbit of nations less willing to surrender their sovereignty. Germany and France, Europe’s two largest centers of gravity, have consistently pushed for establishing a “two-speed Europe.”

• The European Union currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Major EU decisions typically require the agreement of all 27 member states.

“Europe has to become stronger and more resilient,” Klingbeil said. “Work toward this goal needs to be sped up in all dimensions. Continuing as before is not an option.” He referred to the meeting as a “kick-off” for such a group.

The EU tried this before with the 2012 formation of the “Berlin Group,” and momentum toward consolidation has recently increased again.

• The Telegraph noted on January 26, “There’s a new appetite to move forward on important matters in smaller groups of member states if necessary. Unanimous decisions are out of fashion, with more and more being taken by a vote, with a majority vote, weighted by population.”
• Former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a man the Trumpet watches closely, has called for a multispeed EU for more than a decade.

The Trumpet has warned that Europe will become a leaner, stronger, more decisive power bloc that surrenders authority not only to a core of 10 nations or nation-groups, but to one nation, Germany, and even one specific German strongman (possibly Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg).

Revelation 17 prophesies that “ten kings” will emerge who temporarily come together to form a powerful, unified empire before the return of Jesus Christ.

The late Herbert W. Armstrong identified this empire as German-dominated and Catholic-led Europe. He warned of its rise for decades. In 1981, he said:

When it does happen it will happen suddenly—so quickly it will take your breath, and the whole world will gasp in awe and wonder when they see the things that are prophesied. For example, 10 nations in Europe—probably five of them in Western Europe and five in Eastern Europe—reviving, resurrecting the so-called Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages; and that is going to happen very soon now.

Watch for the 27 EU nations to condense into a smaller, more decisive, much more powerful group that exerts power over the rest of Europe and against the United States and Britain. Our book The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy explains.