Germany Wants to Shrink the Eurozone

Behind the scenes, German officials are plotting to form a smaller, better-integrated single currency area.
 

Germany supports a new euro that could exclude weaker nations, according to anonymous sources. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a two-speed Europe last week, saying, “In the end, clearly, there will be two European gears: one gear towards more integration in the eurozone and a gear that is more confederal in the European Union.” But France does not call the shots in Europe—Germany does. This makes the reports of German support far more significant.

“France and Germany are understood to want to strengthen the union between eurozone countries with new taxes and legal measures to stop nations borrowing and spending too much in future,” the Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent Bruno Waterfield writes. “Weaker countries such as Greece could even be barred from the new eurozone, under radical suggestions from some of those involved in discussions over the plan.”

Reuters quotes a senior EU official as saying: “France and Germany have had intense consultations on this issue over the last months, at all levels.”

“We need to move very cautiously, but the truth is that we need to establish exactly the list of those who don’t want to be part of the club and those who simply cannot be part,” he said.

“The discussions among senior policymakers in Paris, Berlin and Brussels raised the possibility of one or more countries leaving the eurozone while the remaining core pushes on toward deeper economic integration, including on tax and fiscal policy,” reports Reuters.

It quotes a German government official saying, “You’ll still call it the euro, but it will be fewer countries.”

“We won’t be able to speak with one voice and make the tough decisions in the eurozone as it is today,” he said.

“This will unravel everything our forebears have painstakingly built up and repudiate all that they stood for in the past 60 years,” Reuters quotes an EU diplomat as saying. “This will redraw the map geopolitically and give rise to new tensions. It could truly be the end of Europe as we know it.”

Both French and German government spokesmen have denied that any discussions are under way. But, in the murky world of EU diplomacy, those denials don’t mean much. For months EU officials insisted that no nation could leave the euro. Then France and Germany threatened to kick Greece out.

The picture painted by the German and European officials matches exactly what the Trumpet has forecast for years. What is coming in Europe will “redraw the map geopolitically,” and it will be “the end of Europe as we know it.”

Prepare for a leaner, more powerful Europe made up of 10 nations. For more information on what is coming in Europe, see Trumpet columnist Ron Fraser’s latest article “Europe—Here Comes the Ten.”