EU strips Greece of voting power, blow to sovereignty

[Yala]

Greece loses EU voting power in blow to sovereignty

The European Union has shown its righteous wrath by stripping Greece of its vote at a crucial meeting next month, the worst humiliation ever suffered by an EU member state.

The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own tax and spend policies altogether. It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126.9 of the Lisbon Treaty in what would amount to economic suzerainty.

While the symbolic move to suspend Greece of its voting rights at one meeting makes no practical difference, it marks a constitutional watershed and represents a crushing loss of sovereignty.

"We certainly won't let them off the hook," said Austria's finance minister, Josef Proll, echoing views shared by colleagues in Northern Europe. Some German officials have called for Greece to be denied a vote in all EU matter until it emerges from "receivership".

The EU has still refused to reveal details of how it might help Greece raise €30bn (£26bn) from global debt markets by the end of June.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...vereignty.html

[wat0n]

Regardless of all the problems with the euro, they deserve it, actually.

[bararallu]

Bye Bye EU.

[Cellis]

I'm soooooooooooooooooo happy to see this inevitable tragedy

[bararallu]

Come on it was a train wreck from the outset. The assumption was always that the Germans were going to pay the way. They just arent going to do that. They covered the Italians a few years back, the Spanish etc. Now they just had enough. The economy sucks and they're unwilling to foot the bill. There are reasons that the Swiss never joined the EU, and that has nothing to do with privacy laws etc...

I'm also fairly sure that a 5th of the Greek economy is funded by German [and possibly British] tourists, who are all to willing to pay 10 dollars for a can of cola.

[dayag]

...The European Union has shown its righteous wrath by stripping Greece of its vote at a crucial meeting next month, the worst humiliation ever suffered by an EU member state...

Quick, admit Macedonia to the EU and make their humiliation complete!

[Yala]

and Italy is next.

[bararallu]

and Italy is next.

I say Portugal or Spain, but you may be right.

[Kachah]

Quick, admit Macedonia to the EU and make their humiliation complete!

And rename Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia into just Macedonia
and
Greece into Former European Republic of Greece

[Kachah]

I say Portugal or Spain, but you may be right.

Portugal most likely. By the time Germany bails out Greece and Portugal it will be too late to deny the same for Spain and Italy, that's what really the Germans are worried about.
Given that Belgium and the UK are in only marginally better shape.. things that make you go "m-mmmm".
Good riddance, EU, see you never.

[wat0n]

Come on it was a train wreck from the outset. The assumption was always that the Germans were going to pay the way. They just arent going to do that. They covered the Italians a few years back, the Spanish etc. Now they just had enough. The economy sucks and they're unwilling to foot the bill. There are reasons that the Swiss never joined the EU, and that has nothing to do with privacy laws etc...

I'm also fairly sure that a 5th of the Greek economy is funded by German [and possibly British] tourists, who are all to willing to pay 10 dollars for a can of cola.

Yes, and the whole EU assumed that a common currency with no EU-level fiscal policy would work just fine, unfortunately they were dead wrong...

[takeo]

untill now, Euro worked well and it's stronger than $ or pound. Many Brits now think about adopting the euro, as well as icelandics and Swedes. Iceland formally requested to join the euro and EU. European economy suffered less during the recent crisis than the American economy. By the way the deficit of Greece is still smaller than the deficit of for example California. But I agree admission to the euro zone of some relatively poor southern European countries came too early, it should have been limited to the countries of North Western Europe. Now I 'm sure Poland, Hungary and others will be scrutinised before they'll ever be admitted to the euro, and European expansion is on a hold. Everyone will think twice before admitting countries like Ukraine or Turkey. Back in the 80's German chancellor Willy Brandt was against Greek entry, which he believed to be a half third world country. Greece was admitted mainly for political reasons.
But what makes me curious is why you people are so much against the EU and euro and wish them bad luck? Perhaps because it's a serious contender for the US? It's still the largest economy in the world. I'm not a real EU fan but at least as far as economics go, it made life better and easier for most of us, and now we have a strong currency. The greek debacle made the euro weaker, but it's still at a much higher level than 10 years ago compared to the dollar.

[Sanket]

It's still the largest economy in the world.

Different Countries!

[Mediocrates]

I'm agnostic on it. If Germany wants to bail out Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Fine. That's their deal. If not, the takeos of Europe will claim that Germany has become a Zionist dominated fascist state anyway, for NOT doing that. Who really cares either way?

[wat0n]

untill now, Euro worked well and it's stronger than $ or pound.

That's precisely the problem for Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.

If they had their own currencies they could devaluate their currencies and stop the crisis some months later, but they don't so adjustment will be done the hard way (with internal deflation, high unemployment and very low or negative growth).

Krugman explains the problem very well, much better than I could:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/op...rssnyt&emc=rss