On Wednesday October 11th, the tiniest member of the EU, Slovakia, stopped an important agreement to expand bailout funds for nations which are deep in debt.
Ian King, head of International Equities of Legal & General, which has $557 billion under management, explained in an interview in «Reuters»: «After a rally over the past few days there is nervousness ahead of the Slovak vote, people would like to see more concrete action sooner, but we are dealing with 17 different countries, and opinions between policymakers are varied, and consensus between them is going to take time. The market does not like uncertainty” (1)
The fact of Slovakia not voting in favor that day is not as important as the image of complete weakness of the EU.
There was a time when the members of the euro-zone thought that they could be as strong as USA and grow as fast as China, this time has ended up. There was a time when politicians could have tried to move a European federation further. But it would have meant to lose part of our independence as independent countries; and this was unthinkable at that time, although now, there are some important movements to force a change. However disagreement is one of the most used words when a newspaper is talking about Euro bailout funds or plans for fighting against the high sovereign debt.
From disagreements euro-skeptics become stronger. Nevertheless, there have always been euro-skeptics, but they were lonely voices while the crowd was shouting in favor of the European Union. Now things have turned around and euro-skeptics have an important role in the political agenda. The most significant example is UK, in the article “UK’S Cameron Faces Fresh Challenge From Euro-Skeptics” in «Downjones», Tory David Nuttall a member of the small «Better Off Out» group of U.K. lawmakers pushing for the government to pull out of the EU, said “The gist of that motion will be that there should be a referendum on whether or not we remain in the European Union […] It is about time… Most [lawmakers] I believe will fight for the idea of having a referendum.» (2) (3)
Why were they so few years ago and nowadays even politics who have been defending the EU are having second thoughts? As always, we are talking about money. Do we have to save the boat, sink with it or try to bail water out of the boat to save what we have been able to achieve so far?