Radio FM4

Kate Farmer

Cutting to the chase

Alle Stories

Erstellt am: 11. 11. 2011 - 14:22 Uhr

A new turn in the Euro saga

Reality Check: Bildungsvolksbegehren, EU crisis, Kill team verdict, James Murdoch faces British MPs, what happens in a sleep lab.

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There have been months of wrangling, in-fighting, blame thowing, debating, decision taking, and decision reversing. There have been enough meetings, summits, talks and negotiations to melt a polar ice cap with the amount of CO2 they must have generated, both in "hot air" and more conventional carbon emmissions. Now, finally, both Greece and Italy seem to be getting close to fulfilling the requirements the EU has of them.

Both Prime Ministers are out - Papendreou has already stepped down in Greece, Berlusconi is to go early next week in Italy, and both are to be replaced with bankers. Given that the whole world financial mess goes back to the behaviour of the banks, I'm not sure I find that fact particularly comforting, but it seems to please the suits in Brussels. Both Greece and Italy are to implement further austerity measures as dictated by the EU, even though the majority of experts say that lack of growth is the main problem, and austerity stifles growth further. However, I'm sure they have their reasons.

With the EU getting its way on so many points, surely the tension must be easing a little in Brussels? Well, not really. Although no one is formally admitting it, behing the scenes, French and German diplomats are discussing the possibility of expelling the problem countries from the Euro Zone. This is pretty much EU heresy, as a basic condition of the Euro Zone is that once you're in, rather like at the Hotel California, "you can't never leave". However, the implications of some countries leaving goes much further than upsetting EU protocol, as Vanessa Mock explained to Joanna Bostock.