Crisis Unites European Union on Financial Reform

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Crisis Unites European Union on Financial Reform

The euro crisis is solidifying the EU just as the Trumpet has long predicted.

Since the EU’s inception, member states have been hesitant to hand over power of their finances to Brussels, but recent trends show that the global economic downturn is eradicating this hesitation.

The title of a September 13 Der Speigel article says it all: “Crisis Forces Europe to Unite on Financial Reform.” The article explains that the financial fear of European Union members has now reached a level sufficient to push through Europe-wide financial reforms. In doing so, member nations are relinquishing more power to Brussels.

The article documents a September 6 meeting in which European Council President Herman Van Rompuy presented EU member state finance ministers with a plan to stabilize crisis-ridden Europe:

The finance ministers listened attentively before going on to discuss the issue. But instead of rushing headlong into the usual squabbling session, a cozy feeling of harmony spread through the conference room.

Following the meeting, Austrian Finance Minister Josef Pröll enthusiastically said that the European Union is finally implementing what it has “been discussing for years.” He said that the EU was on the cusp of taking a “quantum leap” that will “fundamentally change Europe.”

EU officials are not the only ones who, for years, have been discussing a quantum leap in the solidification of the European Union.

In numerous passages, Bible prophecy reveals that, immediately prior to Jesus Christ’s Second Coming, a German-led European empire will control world affairs. For this reason, the Trumpet, following in the footsteps of its forerunner magazine the Plain Truth, has been monitoring the EU’s rise with great interest.

In the November/December 1954 issue of the Plain Truth,Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “Germany inevitably [will] emerge as the leader of a united Europe. It will require some spiritual binding force to inspire this confidence—to remove these fears—and that spiritual binding force must arise from inside Europe!”

In April 2006, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explained that European unity would solidify in a time of crisis and thrust Germany to the helm of leadership in the Union:

Europe doesn’t have a single powerful leader, or a unified foreign policy, to back up its drive for world power. But that is now set to change—and change rapidly! Throughout Europe’s history, what has helped it to overcome its division has been a unity of purpose between church and state. ... Usually the two have been drawn together because of a crisis—an emergency.

Mr. Flurry went on to forecast the cause and nature of the crisis that would bring this unification about:

What emergency might unify Europe again? Mr. Armstrong believed that crisis would be the fall of the dollar. The dollar’s collapse could trigger a world financial crisis and make the European currency an attractive alternative for investors around the world. … Today the dollar is in real trouble. … We can be sure that the dollar is going to collapse. The massively debt-burdened American economy simply can’t remain afloat much longer. … When this trend plays out, it will strongly empower and unify Europe.

A little over two years following the publication of Mr. Flurry’s article, the United States was struck by its “financial 9/11,” and a blow was dealt to the dollar which time will prove fatal.

In October 2008, Trumpet columnist Robert Morley wrote about the American banking crisis slashing into Europe:

When crisis looms in Europe, especially in Germany, the world should take notice. European leaders have been waiting for years for just such an economic crisis. A crisis of this magnitude allows them to sweep away national sovereignties and consolidate power “for the greater good.” … But it will not be Brussels that will come out on top of the federalist European superstructure. … The European crisis will not only act as a catalyst to unite Europe, but it will also cement the status of its leader, Germany.

The Der Speigel article continues:

A monetary union cannot succeed in the long term if every member state simply pursues the economic policies that suit its own interests. This is something that economists have always known, but it has never been politically feasible: Eurozone member states were not prepared to relinquish more power to Brussels.That has changed since the euro crisis shook the monetary union and the realization sank in that things cannot continue as they are. Suddenly there is talk of an “economic union” and even the necessity of an “economic government,” yet there is no sign of the usual outcry.At the meeting last Monday, finance ministers said again and again that “more Europe” is needed—and for the first time, most of those present apparently meant it.

On September 7, the day after the meeting, EU finance ministers launched a series of initiatives backing up their unified talk, establishing a trio of new financial regulatory bodies. EU leaders have already drawn up a report listing proposals, procedures, regulations and austere threats and penalties for member states. Der Spiegel points out that, because the “regulatory zeal” is designed to stabilize the shaky Union during this time of crisis, it is meeting with little or no resistance.

According to the usual political reflexes, such regulatory excesses by Brussels’s Eurocrats would normally immediately lead to trouble. There’s not much indication of that this time around, though—in fact, the report’s “conclusions” state that in Europe’s capital cities there is a feeling of belonging to “a community that shares a common destiny.” It goes on to say that those who distance themselves from this new sense of public spirit will find themselves “increasingly isolated.”

In March of this year, Trumpet columnist Brad Macdonald wrote an article called “Germany: A Potentially Momentous Summer Looms,” in which he said that “Germany is exploiting this crisis to forge Europe into a vehicle of Teutonic ambition.”

Now, on the other side of the summer of 2010, EU officials are looking back to see that the season was indeed momentous, as the Der Speigel article outlines:

The EU has come further over the past few months “than over the past 10 years,” says a delighted Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg. … European Commission President José Manuel Barroso is already rhapsodizing that the monetary union is now underpinned “by a genuine economic union.” … “During these hours,” says Pröll, “a new European community was born.”

Europe is in crisis, and its members are putting aside their nationalism to unite. A new superpower is about to rise, just as the late Herbert W. Armstrong predicted for decades it would. To get a more detailed picture of where this European crisis is heading, read Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.