European Union Is Showing Little Unity

by Tom Tang

Recently all eyes have been on the EU and the member countries` deadlock on how to approach its sovereign debt crisis. The proposed $100 billion dollar bailout package has been plagued by the lack of support from key EU countries that refuse to lend their support for this titanic bailout. As Stephen’s blog points out, unfair burden of this bill is being put on richer countries like Germany and France who have the obligation to financially support bankrupt states such as Greece. To further complicate things, Slovakia which contributes a meagre amount into the bailout package, is threatening to derail the bill if it isn’t passed in the country.

All this begs the question: is the EU is a viable economic model? In my opinion the recent chain of events has suggested to me that the EU is unable to provide economic stability, much less prosperity, to its members. Not only is economic recovery getting tied down by political manoeuvring but some countries are clearly more self-interested as opposed lending a helping hand. If the EU cannot see the impending danger that its political bickering is causing, then it deserves to end up in history’s list of failed social experiments.