ABSTRACT
In February 2011, still in the throes of the financial crisis, which in the Eurozone has triggered a debt crisis in the most exposed member states, Germany and France announced ‘far-reaching plans to deepen integration among the 17 nations that use the currency.’ French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose role in the process of European integration has become something like that of a spokesperson for the German Chancellor, explained the plan as ‘a pact [for] economic government and convergence’ (quoted in International Herald Tribune, 5–6 February 2011). Several member states normally close to the two core EU states such as Belgium and The Netherlands immediately registered their opposition, but as the same report continues, Berlin, which once opposed the idea of greater decision-making among Eurozone leaders, now wants to make it a central part of a packages of measures. These will also strengthen the rescue fund for the Eurozone by allowing it to lend to its full, Є440-billion ceiling figure, and perhaps use its funds more flexibly. In exchange for bolstering the fund, Berlin hoped to use the new ‘pact for competitiveness’ to force weaker Eurozone economies to mirror Germany’s more disciplined example.
