EUtopia Lost? Thoughts on Austerity

I am truly worried about Europe. I am currently marking essays on the effects of austerity on the eurozone. Perhaps two out of 250 students wrote that deeper integration of the EU would be a way out of the crisis. As a Europeanist, I had always placed my hopes in my generation: a generation of travellers and exchange students, a generation that loves to learn new languages, a generation that experiences the achievements of European integration every day when they use the euro. I read today that particularly the youth of the European south is losing confidence in the European institutions. In France the majority believes that European integration has harmed the French economy. Austerity is devouring the backbone of this Union.

Europe's youth is becoming disillusioned

One would think that the idea of austerity as a means to resolve economic crises had been abandoned ages ago. John Maynard Keynes understood in the 1930s that times of crisis require programmes to boost the economy, and that do not suffocate it. Nevertheless, Europe has chosen the path of austerity. When Germany’s unemployment surpassed reached nearly 5 million in 2005 (11,4%), the Schröder-government introduced austerity measures to fight unemployment. Unemployment benefits were controversially cut quite radically, and the German welfare system received a serious blow. Nevertheless, the policy was afterwards justified by its success. Germany today has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU, and it is among the few countries that have survived the crisis relatively unscathed. Following the German example of the 2000s, countries lacking an industrial base embraced austerity, thereby fulfilled conditions that allowed them to receive bail-outs from the IMF and the eurozone. Germany is competing with China over the title of being the world’s largest exporter. Its entire economy is built around exports. A policy that keeps wages low has the same effect as the devaluation of one’s currency. However, such policies only make sense if the economy is based on exports. The economies of the European south are based on domestic consumptions – austerity is bound to fail. The current German dominance in Europe is encouraging the application of a model that is not applicable to economies like those of Spain or Greece.

At the same time, unemployment skyrockets. Europe is largely a post-industrial region with the lowest fertility rate in the word. Never has there been a generation that is proportionally as tiny as mine. While 35% of the population were below 20 in 1950, today merely 20% are below 20. I am part of a small generation, but youth unemployment is higher than ever. Austerity has caused youth unemployment in Spain to skyrocket from 17% in 2007 to over 50% in 2013. Greece, Portugal, Italy and Ireland have experienced similar developments. The blame for this is inevitably and rightly directed at European leaders. Instead of regulating a banking industry that has caused the crisis in the first place, it was decided in the European Council to implement austerity measures that have crippled half the continent. The European Council is an intergovernmental institution that it dominated by the strongest member states, and most Europeans have no say about who leads those member states. There is a time for any emotion, and if you understand what is going on here, you have every right to feel frustration, helplessness, and also anger, against the incompetence, coldness and supposed hyper-rationality of the politicians of our time.

Youth unemployment in the EU

In the the Bible says that a people without vision are doomed. I had always thought that the unification of Europe could provide this vision - I see it not only as a vision for Europeans, but for all of humanity, because it proves that people can work together, and that national divisions are insignificant. This EU has no chance to survive unless its institutions are fundamentally reformed, allowing for a European government that is democratically elected by all Europeans. Austerity is not the choice of Europeans – democracy in the EU is also in crisis. Austerity turning the tides against European integration, and if you believe that the crisis is over, think again.

Harald Köpping

Inconvenient Truths: Lessons from Europe's Past

War brings out the worst in people. That was the message of the new trilogy produced by ZDF about WW2. That is also the message, that Martin Schulz, the current president of the European Parliament wrote in his analysis of the movie today in the Frankfurter Allgemeine. I have been living in Germany for more than a year now, at the great despair of my parents, and I was astonished from the very start by the amount of documentaries about WW2 and all the aspect of the Nazi regime are shown on TV here. It has become a game between Harald and me. Every night he turns on the TV on a channel that shows a documentary about Germany between 1933 and 1945, and I tell him half-shocked, half-amused, “You Germans are so obsessed!” I have always thought, maybe because of my education, that this time was over, part of another era. That the European integration process had waved away bad memories, and that as we move on, this part of Europe’s dark past will forever stay where it belongs: in the history books. The euro crisis proved me wrong; it proved that everything that has been done in western Europe since the end of the Second World War was a very fragile construction.

Five friends' naivity before the war experience

Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter, is probably the first German movie that I saw about WW2. I haven’t seen all three parts yet, but I am definitely recommending it. I wish they could translate it and show it in Greece, because I have experienced something that I profoundly dislike. It started last Easter when Harald and I went to Greece to spend it with my family. After the traditional lamb a neighbor came over and said to me, that we should say that Harald is Austrian because you never know. There are people out there who might not like the fact that he is German. Harald and I laughed of course at the ridiculousness of the comment. But now that I think about it, it is not that ridiculous. Greek media have bombarded Greek public opinion about how the Merkel-Schäuble block wants to destroy the south. Naturally, it was not long until the first pictures of Merkel portrayed as Hitler were published. It was not long until people started talking about comparing the current situation to WW2. This of course pisses off Harald. Germany lost 10% of its population during the war, Greece 4,5%. and the traces of the war are still visible today in Germany in nearly every street.

Schulz reminds Germans of the great gift that the rest of Europe gave to Germany, allowing it to come back to the table of nations, that the Schuman Plan came as an alternative to Versailles, that it was forgiving and not vengeful. This is the existing narrative of European integration; the narrative of forgiveness. Having this narrative in mind it becomes quite difficult to understand the current situation. European bureaucrats are ill equipped to respond or to understand what is happening in the south. The reality is that France’s initial plan for Germany (as drafted by Monnet) was a very Versailles-style treaty. It was only after American pressure that the Schuman Plan was created. The reality is also that for long Germany was punished, divided by the great powers of this world. The fifty years of socialism are condemned to stay in history books as a dark period, and East Germans today are expected to adopt the history of West Germany.

I have many times compared the Weimar Republic to the current situation in Greece. Economic despair can bring out the worst in people; so can uncertainty about the future. Hopelessness brings out the worst of societies. Both the Weimar Republic and today’s Greece are the victims of our economic system. A system that puts profit and money above people; a system that counts wars as positive and health and education as negative in our GDP; a system that puts a monetary value on life (human and animal); a system that made the majority of people in Cyprus defend the money of the top 1% who have never given a crap about the poor. I was shocked when I saw Cypriot citizens defend their banks and rich people’s money (because when you have above than 100,000 euros in the bank you are rich). I heard that the Cypriot government, in an attempt not to touch the bank’s deposits, suggested tax increased and wage and pensions cuts. We are all the victims of our economic system. Unfortunately we prefer to blame easier targets.

Coming back to the movie and Schulz’s comments, I wish that they could be translated in Greek. I wish both Greek and German public spheres would interact more and better. In reality Germany was never allowed to forget about its Nazi past, but all other European countries were allowed to forget about their inconvenient fascist or nationalist pasts. Greeks should be reminded of dangers of all extreme nationalism and Germans should be reminded of the failure of the West German model in East Germany. “East Germans resent the wealth possessed by West Germans; West Germans see the East Germans as lazy opportunists who want something for nothing. East Germans find Wessis arrogant and pushy, West Germans think Ossis are lazy and good-for-nothing” (The Transparent State: Architecture in Politics in Postwar Germany, by D. Barnstone). Reminds you of anything? It’s ironic isn’t it?

Alexandra Athanasopoulou

The Dirty Twenty-Seven: Europe’s involvement in the global arms trade

Between 1932 and 1934 the world’s leaders came together in the city of Geneva to attend the most significant conference of all time: the Disarmament Conference. The American President Roosevelt summarised the aims of the conference: “If all nations will agree wholly to eliminate from possession and use the weapons which make possible a successful attack, defences automatically will become impregnable and the frontiers and independence of every nation will become secure.” After tough negotiations, and after Hitler was assassinated by Julius Leber, the conference became a monumental success: it was decided to ban offensive weapons! Robert Oppenheimer spontaneously decided that he would abandon nuclear physics to work on hydrogen fuel cells instead, and the new leaders of Germany were so euphoric that they convinced France to commonly found the Pan-European Federation.

The world's leaders meet in Geneva

This is of course not how history turned out; but imagine a world without arms – war would be obsolete, and a huge amount of human suffering would never occur. A general ban of the global arms trade would be a good start on the way towards this vision.

But let’s get back to reality. In 2011, 2.2 trillion US-dollars were used globally for military expenditures. The military budgets of the UK, France and Germany are among the world’s top-ten, and as a whole the 27 Member States of the European Union spent $281 billion on their militaries, amounting to 1.5% of the EU’s GDP. In comparison, about 5% were spent on education.

What is even more shocking is that the crisis-struck Member State Greece has the 19^th largest military budget on the planet. It is only slightly smaller than that of Israel or Spain. Greece spends 4.3% of its GDP on the military, compared with 4.1% on education. Proportionally no EU Member State spends as much on its military, and globally there are only a handful of states that spend more. I don’t know what is more threatening, invasion from its giant neighbours to the north (Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria), or occupation by its NATO-ally Turkey. While Europe is forcing absurd austerity measures on the Greek population, which have lead unemployment and poverty to skyrocket, the German government has sold Greece military equipment worth €403 million in 2010, and Greece continues buying Leopard-tanks and submarines (okay, sometimes they don’t work) from German weapons manufacturers. Motives of ‘solidarity’ in the Greek ‘rescue package’ are completely dismantled in the face of this ridiculous policy. It is crazy to assume that any EU Member State is facing a serious military threat, and the Greek policy of cutting pensions while buying tanks is bordering the criminal.

The EU’s involvement in the global arms trade is no less significant. Whether it is Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya – the West fights wars against the same countries that it sold weapons to ten years earlier. Between 2005 and 2009 European arms exports to Libya for instance had more than quadrupled, including materials such as military planes and tear gas. The planes that Gadhafi used to bomb his own population were produced in France and Russia. Similarly, civil wars in Sudan and Congo are fought with weapons produced and sold by the West, putting further pressure on the moral credibility of European governments. At the same time, Europe is celebrating the production of weapons like the Eurofighter as success stories of European integration, and the integration of Europe’s military industry is seen as positive – what could possibly be more cynical?

I don’t understand why states cannot simply agree not to sell weapons anymore, but it seems that the profit generated by the fact that the arms industry is one of the largest industries in the planet outweighs the ethical problems resulting from it. The accumulation of capital is more important than the potential prevention of war in the polico-economic system we live in. Many people however, are not even aware of this condition, and I am thus hopeful that mere awareness will cause us to question this system, and to elect politicians that will seize to contribute to the dirtiest business on the planet – the international arms trade.

Harald Köpping

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