Chancellor Schröder's Legacy: Germany's Leading Role in Weakening the Euro

[sysop]

In the early 2000s, Germany was struggling to adhere to euro-zone criteria aimed at ensuring common currency stability. Instead of introducing austerity, however, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder simply launched an effort to change the rules. New documents show just how key his role was in weakening the Stability Pact.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...844458,00.html

[Liberalitärer]

Very interesting insight. Indeed it was Schroder's idea to weaken the stability pact. We are in a lot of mess and this explains it all too well.Abiding zo the rules of the original agreement and..., too late now but Germany must be very careful to blame other nations for their deficiencies.

[pmoseley]

So here we have it. The Germans trying to tell the rest of Europe how their high morals and economic ideals will save the EU. Just 'speak German' they say and all will be well. 'Don't be selfish - think of European solidarity'. And after pushing for the Euro at the beginning with the smoke and mirrors of false economics, behind all the recent rhetoric, all the hype, all the 'leadership', all the 'high ground', we see scenes of back-stabbing, bullying, blackmail and self-interest, pure and simple. What a sordid, selfish facade the great German leadership of the EU is becoming. Maybe the Greeks, Italians, Spanish, and even the French are right after all. The pervasive German hypocrisy belies the truth.

[stevej8]

This article did not detail how the Pact was actually weakened. But also it ignored the fact that Germany (in the days of the Kohl government) originally pushed for an even stronger pact, with automatic penalties for deficit breaches, but it was vetoed by President Chirac of France in heated argument. This is documented in David Marsh's The Euro.