The irony of the EU

The European Union was supposed to tie Germany to Europe's fate, but today it is Europe which is tied to Germany's fate.  The Economist reviews two new books on the subject:

The EU and the euro were conceived largely to subsume German power within a wider Europe. And yet, as he says, the euro crisis has had the effect of making it more dominant than ever. He hints that the solution has to be deeper political integration. And he suggests that only two countries can make this happen: Britain, which still seems semi-detached, and Germany, which only acts as a reluctant leader.

Ulrich Beck, a sociologist and arch-European federalist known at home as a fierce critic of nationalism, also calls in his short book for a more united Europe. He complains that the EU was meant to create a European Germany, but what it is producing is a German Europe. He calls Mrs Merkel a “Merkiavelli” who has exploited the crisis to advance German interests (some would say this is what she was elected to do). As he says, “only one fate is worse than being overwhelmed by German money and that is not being overwhelmed by German money.”

Yet the real enemy now may be not German dominance, but German inaction. Unless Mrs Merkel, who is likely to be re-elected in September, puts more German credit and less austerity on the table, the euro might break up. And, as Mr Simms says at the end of his splendid book, the EU could then go down in history as an “expensive youthful prank”.