Margit Gennser:
Monnet och Hayek
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We need only return to the ideas of Europe’s founding fathers: Jean Monnet, Paul-Henri Spaak, Robert Schuman, Alcide de Gasperi, and others.
These leaders had a clear vision of a simpler yet stronger Union, led not by a 28-member commission, but by a real government with 12 ministers.
They would have allowed Europeans to vote directly for a parliament with full competencies and legislative authority, and without the system of unanimity that has allowed rogue member states such as Hungary to tie the entire bloc’s hands.
Guy Verhofstadt Project Syndicate Dec 12, 2018
Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, is President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) in the European Parliament and the author of Europe’s Last Chance: Why the European States Must Form a More Perfect Union.
Det var inte ett rop på fred och enhet från en bred folklig rörelse som drev fram
första steget mot europeisk integration.
den franske utrikesministern Robert Schuman den 9 maj 1950
Visionären Monnet var en handlingens man med vänner på höga poster på båda sidor om Atlanten.
Han drömde om att bygga ett enat Europa
Ingrid Hedström, DN 15/6 2005
RE: Higly recommended
Altiero Spinelli, född 31 augusti 1907 i Rom, död 23 maj 1986, var en italiensk förespråkare av europeisk federalism. Han ses som en av ideologerna bakom Europeiska unionens grundande och utveckling.
Han gick med i Italienska kommunistpartiet som ung och blev satt i fängelse av fascisterna 1927.
Han var fängslad fram till 1937 och därefter hållen i förvar fram till 1943.
Tillsammans med andra fångar skrev han Ventotene-manifestet, som blev färdigt i juni 1941.
År 1979 invaldes han i Europaparlamentet efter att ha ställt upp som oberoende kandidat på italienska kommunistpartiet lista.
Wikipedia
Habsburg, SvD och Det första världskriget
- Den Europatanke som var så självklar för efterkrigstidens stora européer känns tyvärr i dag, i skuldkrisens och migrationsdebattens EU, som alltför avlägsen och svårgripbar.
- Robert Schumann, Jean Monet och Otto von Habsburg var alla djupt märkta av det förra århundradets långa kedja av katastrofer.
Det skriver SvD i en välskriven ledare av Gustaf Almkvist i dag den 16 juli 2011.
Rolf Englund blog
A group of far-sighted statesmen, inspired by the vision of a United States of Europe, recognised that this ideal could be approached only gradually, by setting limited objectives, mobilising the political will needed to achieve them and concluding treaties that required states to surrender only as much sovereignty as they could bear politically.
That is how the postwar Coal and Steel Community was transformed into the EU – one step at a time, understanding that each step was incomplete and would require further steps in due course.
George Soros, Financial Times 11 July 2011
The euro was an incomplete currency: it had a central bank but no treasury. Its architects were fully aware of this deficiency, but believed that when the need arose, the political will could be summoned to take the next step forward.
That is not what happened, because the euro had other deficiencies of which its architects were unaware. They laboured under the misconception that financial markets can correct their own excesses, so the rules were designed to rein in only public-sector excesses. Even there, they relied too heavily on self-policing by sovereign states.
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The crash of 2008 revealed the flaw in its construction when members had to rescue their banking systems independently.
The Greek debt crisis brought matters to a climax. If member countries cannot take the next steps forward, the euro may fall apart
George Soros FT February 21 2010
Utöver de fem nämnda ger Vinterhed förstås även en tribut till Robert Schuman - EU:s mest aktade fredsarkitekt och tillika en av EU:s grundare i början av 50-talet. Hon nämner dock inte att Schuman i rollerna som fransk premiärminister och utrikesminister (1947-52) samtidigt ansvarade för Frankrikes blodiga och kompromisslösa krig i Indokina (1946-54).
Författaren och journalisten Kerstin Vinterheds nya bok
"Europa, det är jag. Om EU:s fäder och Europas identitet"
Ja-sägarna skriver ostört EU:s historia
Peo Hansen DN Kultur 15/12 2007
Fundamental doubts have been raised about the future of the euro and even the European project itself.
Barroso gave a keynote address to the Jean Monnet Conference.
With the EU facing what is possibly the greatest crisis in its history here are some of his arguments.
Gavin Hewitt, BBC's Europe editor 28 May 2010
"Europe", Mr Barroso said, "is the greatest, and most successful, experiment and political integration in the world".
Second, don't blame the EU, blame national politicians.
The real problem, he said, was not to be found at the European level or its institutions.
"It comes very often from narrow-minded, nationalistic, chauvinistic political leaders at the national level."
The political foundations for union were never laid. Governments kept building higher and higher regardless.
History and ordinary prudence dictated that the union might be broad and shallow (a free-trade area) or else narrow and deep (an evolving political union, confined to countries willing to be led there.
But the architects did not even have the brains to choose the second. They recognized no limits to their ambitions. They set about creating a union that was both broad and deep. A federal constitution, a parliament, a powerful central executive, one central bank, one currency - all with no binding sense of European identity.
As for scale, well, the bigger the better. Today Greece, tomorrow Turkey. And why stop there? Madness.
Clive Crook is a senior editor of The Atlantic, a columnist for National Journal, and a commentator for the Financial Times. He worked at The Economist for nearly 20 years, including 11 years as deputy editor.
The Atlantic Journal May 13, 2010
Vår generation måste också ha visioner. En dag som denna bör Schuman inspirera oss att tänka längre.
Vår vision i ett femton-tjugoårsperspektiv ser ut så här:
Europa, från Atlanten till Ural och Bosporen, har blivit helt.
EU har 40 medlemmar och över 800 miljoner invånare.
Det innebär att samtliga länder som helt eller delvis ligger i Europa, alltså även Ryssland och Turkiet, är medlemmar.
Lars Leijonborg, Partiledare (fp) och Cecilia Malmström, EU-parlamentariker (fp)
Liberala Nyhetsbyrån 9/5 2000