A way out of the crisis - Heinrich Böll lecture

 Yesterday evening, I attended a lecture on the Euro-crisis hosted by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, a foundation under the Green party in Germany.  Paneling the discussion were speakers from policy committees within the foundation, as well as one guest speaker, a state secretary from the federal government.

More than just discuss the current debt crisis and dwell on reasons for it, the moderator and panelists disputed with one another on a deeper level the possible routes the EU could choose to reform its governance to address the dilemma.  According to the moderator, the crisis in the Eurozone "has completely gone astray of the standard doctrine found in Europe's regulated, inter-governmental processes...This evening," he spoke, "we will not dwell on the subject of fiscal policy, but rather governance in the EU."

The evening's discussion round was highlighted by the guest speaker, Jörg Asmussen, the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance. "We have no crisis in the Eurozone (Schengen area), but rather simply a crisis of the state and its indebtedness."  Sec. Asmussen went on to highlight five points of reform, which would solve the EU's governance approach:

1. Solution to the plight of Greece
2. Believeable solutions for other crisis-prone states, in which the fault of indebtedness should lie on the states themselves
3. Expansion of the EFSF
4. Recapitalization of banks
5. Well-defined goals for EU's further expansion, whether that be gaining more members or deciding on a unified fiscal policy

Additional information on the speakers and content from this discussion:
http://www.boell.de/presse/presse-presseeinladung-wege-aus-der-eurokrise-13296.html

-SB