{"id":7932,"date":"2013-07-10T00:01:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-09T23:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/?p=7932"},"modified":"2013-07-09T23:14:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-09T22:14:10","slug":"euroscepticism-on-the-rise-in-two-european-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/2013\/07\/10\/euroscepticism-on-the-rise-in-two-european-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"Euroscepticism on the rise in two European giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In various countries, the EU exit campaign is gaining ground, propelled forward by the enduring European crisis. Over the past months, anti-European demands have clearly surfaced in two of the pillars of the EU: Germany and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Europe without Germany? Pros and Cons<\/b><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On February 6 this year, the eurosceptic liberal-conservative party <strong>Alternative for Germany<\/strong> (<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternativefuer.de\/\">Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland<\/a><\/em>) was founded by economists, intellectuals and politicians calling for a return of the Deutsche mark. Leaving the eurozone would be a logical consequence of that return; however it would not necessarily entail leaving the EU. The political party also suggests banning further national bailouts, as well as an end to banks and financial institutions bankrolling national governments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Furthermore, German entrepreneur <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dw.de\/qu%C3%A9-pasar%C3%ADa-si-alemania-abandona-la-eurozona\/a-15668228-1\">Wolfang Reitzle<\/a> told German weekly <i>Der Spiegel<\/i> that thanks to an appreciation of the <strong>\u201cnew\u201d German mark<\/strong>, Germany would benefit from leaving the euro in the long term. It would put Germany in a better competitive position with respect to emerging markets. Reitzle still prefers an option in which Germany stays in the eurozone, but insists all the while that the euro should not be maintained at all costs.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 394px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/james_rea\/8679766269\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8539\/8679766269_85ef28b690_z.jpg\" width=\"384\" height=\"254\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland&#8221; by JamesReaFotos, on Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Several media outlets, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/28\/business\/global\/pressure-builds-in-europe.html?pagewanted=2&amp;hp&amp;_r=0\">The New York Times<\/a>, predict that a German exit will draw ever closer if the EU continues bailing out debt-burdened countries. It is estimated that these programmes could end up costing Germany 7% of its GDP. On the other hand, the New York Times and other international newspapers indicate that in case the euro were to collapse, all the euro countries, including Germany, would suffer from debt and inflation problems. The press recommends creating Eurobonds before taking more extreme and painful measures.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other alternatives have also cropped up, such as the proposal by former European commissioner Frits Bolkenstein to create a <strong>separate single currency for all European triple A countries<\/strong>, such as the Netherlands and Finland. Obviously, this would harm the conventional euro.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Goodbye United Kingdom?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Euroscepticism is also flourishing in Great Britain. On May 15<sup>th<\/sup>, over 100 Conservative Party MPs voted in favour of an amendment urging that holding an EU exit referendum be made legally binding. They aim to ask the British people the following question: \u2018Do you think the United Kingdom should remain a member of the EU?\u2019<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The special status of Great Britain in the European Union is being undermined by the consolidation of a party similar to Alternative for Germany, called <strong>United Kingdom Independence Party<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/internacional.elpais.com\/internacional\/2013\/05\/14\/actualidad\/1368527869_997982.html\">(UKIP).<\/a> This eurosceptic and nationalist faction is led by Nigel Farage, who reacted to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/tto\/opinion\/columnists\/philipcollins\/article3755062.ece\">doubts<\/a> about the viability of the new project after the results of the local elections by saying: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-22418387\">\u201cUKIP is here to stay\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There are of course still many who advocate the United Kingdom&#8217;s enduring membership in the European Union. One of them is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2013\/apr\/22\/uk-military-eu-german-minister\">Thomas de Maizi\u00e8re<\/a>, who argues that a declining military influence beyond British borders would be cause for concern if the country decides to leave the EU. In Europe, more and more people are tending towards \u201cunionism\u201d, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2013\/apr\/24\/british-exit-from-eu-france-germany\">Alain Frachon<\/a>, editorial director of <i>Le Monde,<\/i> who labels the eurosceptic tide in Britain \u201cfear of the French aspirations for a federal and more homogeneous Europe\u201d. According to Frachon, these will not take shape as long as the United Kingdom and other countries do not give their consent.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/_mia\/3551186591\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  \" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3620\/3551186591_e24fd0c753_z.jpg\" width=\"230\" height=\"307\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;UKIP election propaganda&#8221; by mia!, on Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is not clear what to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-20448450\">expect<\/a> if Great Britain and the European Union decide to part ways. On the one hand, <strong>pro-Europeans<\/strong> support the idea that a possible exit from the EU would damage British exports, causing its GDP and activities to decrease alarmingly. Furthermore, it would create more obstacles for international trade and people travelling or moving abroad, not to mention the loss of political influence in the Western world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, <strong>Eurosceptics<\/strong> predict a rosy future for the British if they decide to leave the union: more opportunities for international trade thanks to bilateral trade agreements, an employment boom, an influx of money which would otherwise have been spent on the EU, increased influence in world politics, more control over migrant flows and increased sovereignty of the British people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is beyond doubt that these arguments will be food for thought for British voters. In times of economic crisis, their future decisions may well surprise the world.<\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><b>Translation of the <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.unitedexplanations.org\/2013\/05\/24\/el-euroescepticismo-emerge-en-dos-gigantes-europeos\/\">original article<\/a><b> in Spanish by Ellen Vosters<\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><b>This is a nonprofit explanation<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In various countries, the EU exit campaign is gaining ground, propelled forward by the enduring European crisis. Over the past months, anti-European demands have clearly surfaced in two of the pillars of the EU: Germany and the United Kingdom. Europe without Germany? Pros and Cons On February 6 this year, the eurosceptic liberal-conservative party Alternative<br><a class=\"moretag signature-animation\" href=\"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/2013\/07\/10\/euroscepticism-on-the-rise-in-two-european-giants\/\">CONTINUE READING<\/a>","protected":false},"author":922,"featured_media":7935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,223],"tags":[3615,3609,3608,3620,3605,3606,3612,192,3610,3613,3614,3611,3618,3607,193,3617,3616,3619],"class_list":["post-7932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-politics","tag-alain-frachon","tag-alternative-for-germany","tag-alternative-fur-deutschland","tag-eurocrisis","tag-euroscepsis","tag-euroscepticism","tag-frits-bolkenstein","tag-nigel-farage","tag-return-of-the-deutsche-mark","tag-separate-currency-for-triple-a-countries","tag-thomas-de-maziere","tag-uk-exit-from-the-eu","tag-uk-referendum-on-eu-exit","tag-ukip","tag-united-kingdom-independence-party","tag-what-if-germany-leaves-the-euro","tag-what-if-the-uk-leaves-the-eu","tag-wolfgang-reitzle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Euro-thumb.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/922"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7932"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7934,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7932\/revisions\/7934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}