Whining About Wine, Babbling Over Bubbles

As one member of the European Parliament queried, he found that the EU Commission had a wine cellar with 42,789 bottles of red, white and sparkling wines as well as almost 2,000 more of spirits in their cellars. Nothing too fancy – no bottle was bought for more than about $60 – but symbolic about how detached the EU has become from the mass of European constituents who are writhing in a renewed recession, many hopelessly jobless and particularly slammed in those countries subjected to severe austerity measures in exchange for rescue packages. The topic at hand is the EU budget, which is under intense pressure to stop growing if not contract, disposing of valuable programs that, for example, have upgraded healthcare systems in the less affluent member states.

The budget and what to do in order with the debt crisis to stabilize Greece, Spain, etc. are what’s on the table, but what is sweeping under that table is a question on the continued viability of the European Union itself. “Across much of Europe, views of the union and its Brussels administrative apparatus have soured. Eurobarometer, the public opinion monitoring arm of the European Commission, found in a survey conducted in May that ‘Europeans who are attached to the European Union are now in a minority.’ Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they felt little or no attachment, up seven percentage points since 2010. In Britain, only 27 percent felt attached to the union.” New York Times, November 21^st. UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, under pressure from his Conservative Party cohorts, seems even willing to support a UK referendum on whether they should remain as part of the EU at all.

The Brussels-based Commission spends only about six percent of its budget on administration: 55 thousand people, including six thousand translators, which seems huge until you look at staffing even in very small countries. The basic reality is that people identify with their countries long before they prioritize their ties to Europe as a whole, and frankly, the blending of cultural proclivities, profoundly disparate levels of economic accomplishment and substantial differences in national priorities under a single union and mostly under a single currency has been challenging, to put it politely. The tools to adjust such vast differences normally available in global adjustment trends disappear under system that homogenizes solutions for complex and diverse problems.

“In the world,” if one nation has severe economic issues and has overspent and borrow to the extreme – a condition that plagued many countries in South America for decades by way of example – the solution would be a massively inflated currency (with values often changing by the hour) until some form of equilibrium – perhaps triggered by a default in debt repayment – was restored. But with a single currency, you have to go into the delinquent country, stab it in the heart and cut away the flesh of excess even as the state struggles to stay alive. The result is staggering unemployment in those nations, an unprecedented hit to public services, and general misery in the miscreant nation and severe (and deeply resented) sacrifice in the richer nations (like Germany and Austria) who are contributing what they believe to be lifelines to rescue the struggling econo-patient, who doesn’t remotely appreciate the medicine.

The member states are now squabbling amongst themselves over the benefit of being a part of the EU, and their very structure makes the thought of change to the financial program almost impossible. “[At] least seven countries, mostly those that contribute more to Europe’s coffers than they get back in farm subsidies and other payments, have already warned that they may veto a budget that does not give them a better deal. Among these is Austria, where, according to [Martin] Ehrenhauser, who sits on the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee, ‘there is a critical mass building against the European Union.’

“Instead of promoting the union’s overarching goal of ‘ever closer union among the peoples of Europe,’ a goal enshrined in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, the framing of budget priorities has tended to do the opposite, pushing rival national interests to the fore in bruising negotiations that take place every seven years to set a so-called multiannual financial framework… ‘It is not a pretty picture,’ said André Sapir, a former adviser to the European Commission president who led a landmark study of the union in 2003 that proposed a host of changes to raise competitiveness and already sluggish economic growth. Among these was a proposed overhaul of the union’s budget, which the study described as a ‘historical relic’ rooted in the bloc’s early years, when fear of food shortages still haunted a Continent recovering from World War II.

“The rethink, which would have scrapped spending on agricultural subsidies, ran into heavy opposition and stalled. All long-term budget decisions require unanimous approval by the member states, a rule first established when the grouping, then known as the European Economic Community, had just six members, not 27. The power of veto makes any major change to spending all but impossible.” NY Times. Makes you think that no matter how bad we think we have it on this side of the Pond, it is a whole lot better than the morass we call the European Union. It gives us a little something more to be thankful here in the United States on this Thanksgiving.

Well, there are some things the EU leaders can agree on: “[The Commission’s] spending on wine has dropped steadily over the past four years. After splashing out $115,000 in 2009, it will spend only $6,500 to replenish its cellar this year. Average consumption at its social events, the council said in a written response, ‘amounts to about one glass of wine per participant.’” NY Times. Perhaps drinking while you are unraveling helps mitigate the pain.

I’m Peter Dekom, and before Americans gloat in seeming superiority, note how deeply our own economy will be slammed if this European experiment truly unravels. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL.