Everyone agrees: the future of Europe lies in German hands. Berlin is now the de facto capital of the European Union, the place where the crucial decisions are taken. They speak about this shift in Brussels and Paris and certainly in Athens, Rome and Madrid. Everywhere in fact – except Germany.
The Germans don't dispute the facts. They know that they alone can afford to bail out the Greeks and that everyone else in the eurozone, including France, has lost their triple-A rating. They know that it has fallen to Germany to establish the near €500bn (£416bn) fund that will deal with future debt crises, the catchily named European Stability Mechanism that starts in July. They know that the new rules that David Cameron "vetoed" but did not stop in December will see Germany's 16 fellow eurozone members have their budgets checked – "their homework marked" as one Eurocrat put it – in Berlin.
Read Full Article »