The euro contagion triggered by Greece’s sovereign-debt crisis has now infected Italy. Silvio Berlusconi’s government, together with a fiscally conscious opposition, managed to secure – in only a few days – parliamentary approval of a package of measures worth more than €50 billion, in order to restore market confidence in the soundness of Italy’s economic fundamentals.
In the absence of a strong and credible EU-wide commitment to stop the contagion, other eurozone countries hit by the sovereign-debt crisis have been following a similar script. But the financier George Soros is right: Europe needs a “Plan B.” The huge crisis now hitting the eurozone and the European Union must not be wasted. It must be used to move Europe farther along the road of integration, lest the Union begin to reverse course.
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