In 2000 a huge step for the creation of a new Europe was taken. Many steps were made before this to create a new federation of nations in Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte had a dream of a united Europe, since then steps had been made little by little. Some ideas were atrocious, like Hitler’s or the very Napoleon. But after the World War II a new idea of a federation of Europe was starting. The break point was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1980. That brings us to 2000, when every member of the EU, but UK, took the same currency. We all were so happy; we thought we would be stronger than the USA or China.
What have happened? Where is all of that? Weren’t we the same nation with differences? Wouldn’t we be working side by side forever? Reality hit us really hard in 2007, what we were dreaming for a long time was melted like a candle. The crisis took off like a rocket, fast and unstoppable, and then government mistakes, market mistakes and people mistakes started to emerge.That was the time when Europe should have been stronger than never, but it hesitated and in economy a second of hesitation means bankruptcy. It is true that there was not much room to make a U turn because the great dependency of the local governments and house economies of banks or markets. But this is not an excuse, Europe was shocked during the most important moments and events normally move faster that bureaucracy.
The headlines of the newspapers began to change, where you could read articles in 1999 like: “The hot spots are four countries on the periphery of the euro area—Finland, Ireland, Portugal and Spain—which are growing much faster than France, Germany and Italy.” And “There are reasons for optimism. Inflation is below 2% in all the fringe economies except Spain. There it has risen to 2.4%, mainly because of higher oil prices.”
You read in 2008: “Spain’s growth was only 1.2%, making this its weakest quarter for over a decade.”
The prices went up rapidly and economies went down fast. Unemployment in the society and inflation rates reached unexpected figures.