Sir, – I used to believe in Europe. No longer. I used to campaign for closer union in Europe. Never again. And never again will I give my vote, in another referendum, for “more Europe”.
Across large swathes of the continent, the dream is dying. The “project” is now a monster out of control – owned and operated by zealots and illiterates whose sole concern is the ritual humiliation of a nation, since there is no credible economic rationale for saddling a bankrupt state with more loans it cannot ever repay.
Syriza has made many mistakes: its slow pace in tackling a fossilised state, its naivete in negotiations, and its naivete about the real meaning of solidarity in the institutions of the European Union.
Yes, the EU has paid over enormous sums of money to keep the show on the road, but for whom and to what end? Whatever Greece’s errors, its ritual humiliation by hawks led and coordinated by Germany is shameful. Among them I include the Government, whose antics at the EU Council and Euro Group in recent months offend the innate decency of many Irish people and, I suspect, that of very many Europeans, too.
This would not, could not, have happened when Europe was a genuine community of nations. It is, however, par for the course when the project and its institutional underpinnings morph into a utopia for big business, big banks and big politics – none of which can be seen to fail, when it is self-evident they all have.
The Greek parliament may or may not buckle when it considers this bailout. While the outcome of the approval procedure in other EU states is less clear, it is a foregone conclusion here, where the nodding dogs in the Dáil will approve without bothering to think it through.
What is certain is that European governments are intent on continuing with the same failed policy, in the hope that draining the last blood from a dying patient, and transfusing the economic equivalent of formaldehyde, will somehow revive the victim and make it well again.
Whether this deal can, or will, be implemented in full or at all, or for how long it might avert a Grexit, nobody knows. What we can be sure of is that while Europe this week may appear infinitely stronger in the eyes of its rulers, its legitimacy in the eyes of millions of citizens is infinitely weaker.
If the founders were alive today, would they even recognise it? – Yours, etc,
KEALAN FLYNN,
Galway.
Sir, – Some useful phrases for Greek nationals visiting European capitals this summer, by subject: on debt levels – “we are where we are”; on pensions – “we are powerless, there are contractual arrangements”; on trust and broken promises – “isn’t that what you tend to do in politics”; on accountability – “all of our decisions were taken in the best interests of the people” (without sniggering); on responsibility – “we are very, very sorry and we take full and complete responsibility for our role in the crisis” (contrite facial expression mandatory).
Possible responses from inhabitants of European capitals, by subject: on referendums – “keep having them until you get it right; on resolution – “you can do it Frankfurt’s way or Frankfurt’s way”. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT
SHINNERS-KENNEDY,
Ballysimon,
Limerick.
Sir, – It really is a bit much that various EU leaders talk about Greece having to “rebuild” trust. What about the trust those leaders have to rebuild with the Greek people and the people of Europe? Still the EU elite refuses to face responsibility for its own mistake in 2010, and the mess that led to in the euro zone, when the Euro Group forced Greece – then Ireland, then Spain, Portugal and Cyprus – to link its banking debt to its national debt.
The consequences of that stupid decision, presumably made at the behest of the banks like Goldman Sachs, which have open-door access to European People’s Party leaders and finance ministers, has led to the current mess in the euro zone. Their failure to lead properly, not how badly Greece is run, directly led to the breaking of the bond of trust the EU had with the citizens of its member states, who can no longer be under any illusions that there is any notion of European solidarity.
Greece could have walked away from the euro zone, on the quite legitimate reason that its debt burden was simply too much and enough was enough and no amount of reform was ever going to make the debt sustainable.
The irony is that if it had, this would have meant all the debts of the German and French banks that the leaders of those countries had tried so hard to avoid being paid would immediately fall back on the taxpayers of Germany and France, meaning all the damage done to the EU and euro zone would have been for nothing anyway.
But instead Greece faced the music of its own dysfunction and is continuing to shoulder not only the debt incurred in running Greece itself, which is the price it pays for that dysfunction, but also the debts of the euro zone banks operating in Greece.
If Greece had walked away, the whole euro edifice would have crumbled, as why would anyone in any other country put themselves through what the Greek people have endured, and for what? So their great-great-grandchildren will still be repaying the losses incurred by reckless investment bank lending in France and Germany that had nothing to do with the Greek economy, no matter how dysfunctional it was. – Yours, etc,
DESMOND FITZGERALD,
Canary Wharf,
London.
Sir, – An old Irish proverb might be well applied to the EU approach to the Greek conundrum – “An awful lot of noise for very little wool, said the devil as he was shearing the pig.” Yours. etc,
DENIS KENNY,
Wellingtonbridge,
Wexford.