Whatever the outcome of Greece's debt crisis, it is already highlighting and triggering major changes in the political identity of the European Union. While still a regional vehicle for securing peace, prosperity and a measure of political equality between large and small states, the internal balance of power between its institutions and between its member states is changing. Power is being concentrated ever more firmly in the hands of its largest members, above all Germany's.
The immediate impact of the Greek debt and funding crisis has been to challenge entrenched assumptions about the stability of the eurozone and even its long-term chances of survival. The stability and growth pact has failed to guarantee good fiscal and debt management across the Union and the eurozone has been totally unprepared for the consequences.
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