Event reports
In his lecture about ways out of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, which was attended by a huge audience including Chinese and international participants, Dr. Michael Fuchs emphasised the positive economic standing of Germany within the EU. Before the crisis, Germany introduced difficult reforms and therefore has been prepared for the crisis. Despite the tendencies of recession in other European countries, Germany’s growth is solid and the unemployment rate is at a historic low.
According to Fuchs, grave mistakes have been made when introducing the Euro. Some of the Maastricht convergence criteria were not even fulfilled by a number of countries of the Euro zone at the time they introduced the Euro. Almost all countries, including Germany, have violated these criteria with regard to new and total debt.
The European fiscal compact, which has been signed on the 2nd of March 2012 and which is in the process of ratification at the moment, has been introduced to reduce sovereign debt by for example establishing debt ceilings in all Euro countries. Additionally, Dr. Fuchs made clear that member states need to pursue fiscal harmonisation to ensure a sustainable stabilisation of the Euro zone.
Saving the Euro is such an important task, because there is a strong correlation between the stability of the Euro zone and the influence of the EU on the international level. Dr. Fuchs is convinced that the EU will come out of this crisis stronger than it went into it. The crisis is a chance to engage in overdue reform and to strengthen the economic and political integration of the EU.
In the debate following the presentation, it was demanded that an increased integration of economic and fiscal policy should also mean a further democratisation of the EU (i.e. strengthening the EU parliament). It is possible that if more power is to be transferred to EU institutions, a referendum will be necessary in Germany to gain democratic legitimacy for changing the EU contracts.