Just before my departure to the airport for Tokyo to the EO-University , I came across this interview (German language) on Spiegel.de with the famous Indian economist Jagdish Bhagwati. In his charming ways he still sees a future for Europe, but jokes around that “Europe, you will not fall asleep, will you?”
In my view, the benefits of the European integration certainly do outweigh the challenges: First and foremost, looking back “only” a thousand years in European history, a period of peace at least within the member states for the last 60 years should not be taken for granted. It’s not just the “big talk” of the flat world, but definitely much earlier the good feeling of one Europe where it makes a difference to travel and to trade with one currency. Just to name one big achievement.
On the other hand, with my overall sceptism of Germany as one of the steamboats of the EU, one sadly has to add that there are two other countries which are even more notorious underperformers: France and Italy. All three together, part of Donald Rumsfeld’s famous saying of “Old Europe”, umfortunately possess a strong political and particularly economic weight in the entire European fabric. No wonder that under such a dominant leadership of gradually market-averse members, the club has developed into a cancerous monster of over-bureaucratization which badly requires radical reforms.
Mr. Bhagvati quotes the example of over-standardization for all and everything like the size of condoms. In that context Italy must have rebelled, because they wanted them produced 1 cm longer. Maybe that’s right when I am in the country for a visit and need to buy some, but usually the Italian size rather lies in the realm of microscopic measures - LOL
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