I don't read the English language press about the EU, in fact there is hardly any mention of EU politics and the EP to be found. What little I do hear is mostly from the BBC worldservice. You can factor in their prejudices accordingly.
I know you have vigorously defended your position about the Russian gas export business, but I'm not talking about economics, but psychology. At some point the gas stopped for several countries. It doesn't matter why it stopped, it just made people elsewhere realize that it could stop some time in the future for them as well. You seem to think that just because some action makes no sense from an economic point of view it won't happen. We have learned that countries can gleefully engaged in self-destructive behavior in spite of the facts.
As for your statement that the EP has transnational power, I think you will have to provide evidence of this. Right now, for example, Spain and Ireland are constrained as to what sorts of monetary policies they can undertake and the wealthier countries seem disinclined to help.
I'm not being a doom sayer, I just think that the EU is now facing its first real international challenge and has, as yet, to come up with an appropriate response. The future is not predetermined and like you, I hope that cool heads will prevail and new ideas will be forthcoming.
PS. I wasn't mocking the setting of standards, which is what the right does, just pointing out that it is easier to deal with specifics than with overarching social policy issues.
I'd be interested in hearing what steps are being contemplated or suggested to deal with the current crisis. I can't make head or tail out of the kinds of remarks that Daniel Cohn-Bendit made at the top of this thread. To me this is just the type of muddled thinking that the pundits delight in engaging in.
In the US things are different. The right is funded by the monied interests who provide the think tanks and academic appointments that keep their intellectual whores employed. So all the talk about free markets, trickle down, light regulation and the like is just a veneer meant to cover up the underlying greed that motivates the funders.
Without the same plutocracy in Europe I don't think there is the same connection between political thought and social positions. When you know who is paying your salary it focuses the mind and helps you concentrate on getting your master's positions disseminated.
If you think there are any specific sources that I might find useful I'd be happy for your suggestions. Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
What little I do hear is mostly from the BBC worldservice.
You do realize that the first "B" of BBC stands for "British", right? You have to realize that anything the British say about Europe or the EU (and thus anybody writing in English and influenced by primary sources from London) has to be viewed with profound suspicion. "Balance" on that topic is somewhere between distaste and mistrust, compounded by a rather different understanding than on the continent of how much the EU matters internally.
At some point the gas stopped for several countries. It doesn't matter why it stopped, it just made people elsewhere realize that it could stop some time in the future for them as well.
Well, it depends what you mean by "it stopped." Wholesale deliveries from one source stopped, temporarily. Which is something that also happens now and then for technical reasons. Which is why you have storage, diversity of supply, etc... That the media chose to treate wholesale cuts from one source as "hospitals in the dark" is hyperbole and incompetence, to a large extent. Even in countries which rely heavily on Russian gas, it's not clear to me that they actually needed to cut supplies to domestic users, or that this was done to score easy political points - and it certainly points to incompetence in governments in dealing with a strategic issue. Continental Western Europe has dealt with full dependency on imports for many years, via massive storage capacity, diversified sources and so forth. So, if the Russian cuts revealed anything, it was the incompetence of some rather than a risk which has always been taken into account by the serious players.
As for your statement that the EP has transnational power, I think you will have to provide evidence of this.
Google "REACH"
Right now, for example, Spain and Ireland are constrained as to what sorts of monetary policies they can undertake and the wealthier countries seem disinclined to help.
That(s like saying that Congress obviously has no federal power because California is in a budgetary crisis. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I'm not talking about economics, but psychology
I see no evidence in Europe for a psychological shock of the kind you imagine. The British media, though, do make more of it, because Britain has a dog in the fight, namely, is running out of North Sea gas.
If you can't make head or tail of what Cohn-Bendit is saying above, it's because your knowledge of French and European politics is too summary. Try asking questions instead of pontificating on the basis of what you get from the BBC.
