A week ago, it was read “Leaving the Eurozone Shouldn’t Be Taboo” electronic warfare magazine† Hans Hoggerforst, Senior VVD, Former Minister, Former Chairman of the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority and former President of the International Accounting Standards Board, in short a man with not seven but eight marks, who could have written a cover article in person, in which he invited the Netherlands. To play this trump card.
The reason for the call was that the European Central Bank was unable to raise interest rates or stop the Eurozone government bond-buying program because southern member states with very high debt would go bankrupt. This is why debts have to accumulate endlessly. “Stone in the pond”, he called his proposal into it Buitenhof†
Now leaving the eurozone was not a taboo in the Netherlands. A third of the House of Representatives (PVV, FvD, Ja21, SP) has been shouting this out for years. Thus, Hoogervorst can turn into a party that not only doubts this, but also screams at it from the rooftops. But he also wants the ruling party to come in on the DVD. Hoogervorst notes that Rutte—”he listens to me seriously”—should become the kind of Boris Johnson aware of Nexit.
Only the timing of his call was very unfortunate, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then, this is not only taboo, but completely unimaginable. If the Netherlands leaves, the other northern member states will leave the sinking ship and the monetary union will be blown up.
The other option to end the buyback program is to make the currency union a political union, as the intention has always been. The eurozone and the European Union should become a kind of United States of Europe. But Hogerforst did not mention it. It is abhorrent in the eyes of the British (but they no longer participate) and all kinds of populist parties (but the invasion silenced them).
However, the consensus on Ukraine brings it closer. In fact, it has been quietly worked on for a long time. In the context of the pandemic, the European Union has already been allowed to place bonds itself. The energy transition will also be financed on a European scale. Fear of the Russian bear can accelerate political and financial integration. Suddenly, arms supplies to Ukraine are being paid from a European fund. What seemed impossible a week ago – Ukraine’s EU membership – is now open for discussion. Ursula von der Leyen, the unelected president of the European Commission, stands out more than Macron, Schulz, Johnson and even Biden as a Western leader in the process of supporting Ukraine and receiving the influx of refugees.
The opportunity for a European union with a single fiscal policy is at hand. Sovereign states can simply continue to exist if Bundesländer† departmentsor provinces or whatever they are called in the European Union. For now, the question is not whether the Netherlands should abandon the euro, but whether Ukraine should follow the example of the Baltic states.
