Rahr: Europe will change in 2013
The current year will be very difficult for Europe, as it will change, the composition of the EU member states will change, and Europe will not be the one we used to see it, German political scientist, journalist and expert Alexander Rahr said while discussing the subject of separatism in Europe with Ukrainian political analyst Dmytro Vydrin.
He said during the Foucault's Pendulum program on Tonis Channel that some EU member states are not taking the measures that are proposed by Germany and France in order to strengthen the positions of the eurozone in the world.
"The parliament, which will oversee the laws of all EU member countries, the creation of a very strong post of finance minister of the whole of Europe, who will interfere with the budgets of the national states... If all this is done, as Germany and France currently want to do to save Europe, then Britain is the first candidate to withdraw from the EU," the expert said.
On the other hand, he said, Greece's possible withdrawal from the EU, which will thus get rid of its debts, shifting them "onto the shoulders" of the strongest European countries, could serve as a negative example for other countries in Europe.
"Italy, Spain and Portugal will say that once the Greeks managed to avoid responsibility, we will do it too. And what will then remain from the eurozone, from Europe? This is very dangerous," the analyst said.
The third factor, which, in his opinion, warms centrifugal sentiments in Europe, it is the extraordinary gain in the political position of Germany in the EU, which generates in many eurozone countries a fear of Germanization.
"Europe will get weaker in all of its current disasters – get weaker with respect to America, with respect to Asian countries. Europe already has no resources, and it has almost no production on its territory, therefore it will be increasingly dependent on external factors. The political union in Europe will get weaker. In order to prevent this, there's an attempt to create in Europe, through new legislation, a political united states of Europe. We will see this year whether it happens or not," Rahr said.
According to Vydrin, now it is extremely important for the European authorities to choose the right strategy to resolve the overdue conflict within Europe, rather than try, figuratively speaking, to "saw off the poles in an electric battery."
"There could be countries that are the bearers of negative trends, i.e. minuses, for Europe. The easiest temptation is to cut off this minus. In my opinion, the exclusion of Greece from the EU is an attempt to cut off a minus. But nothing will change, because there could be other minuses - Spain, Portugal and other countries... The problem is to find the roots of the conflict and try to resolve it, rather than saw off the conflict," the analyst said.
