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There is already a Two-Tier Europe

It seems the prospect of a two-tier Europe is growing stronger. But there is already a three-tier one, in fact. The European Union is about as united as a conference of anarchists.
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What’s the Latest Development?

As the EU flounders, another “non-solution” to its woes is being proposed: more control, less democracy and a long slump, says Jason Walsh.  A two-tier Europe is being whispered about in Brussels, Paris and Berlin. But a three-tier one already exists, he says. The inner core is the eurozone, around it the non-eurozone states, and the outer tier is Romania and Bulgaria.

What’s the Big Idea?

One of the great lies of the eurocrisis is that it’s the fault of “peripheral” economies such as Greece, Italy and Spain, which borrowed recklessly while Germany worked hard and saved. Really, the eurocrisis is due to lopsided Keynesian pump-priming that favored Germany. Talk of a break-up of the euro, or even of the EU, is over-blown. Europe faces a decade of compromise, slow decline in its prestige, and economic slump.

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