The official statement from the EU summit is a bureaucrat's dream of rules, triggers,...

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Caladesi Kid Comments (186)
 
Germany has conquered Europe without firing a shot! Although there is abundant reason to be skeptical. Greater EU oversight over nations is not a comforting concept. Where is the enforcement? Guidelines for 'behavior' in the EU have been well documented in previous agreements, yet every member including Germany and France have violated the previously agreed guidelines. So, how will a new, fresh grouping of words on the page change behavior? In addition, how will this agreement relieve the pressure on current sovereign financing pressures? Not so much, therefore another useless drama.
9 Dec 2011, 07:26 AM Reply Like

davidingeorgia Comments (2698)
 
Yes, the Germans have done it. What are we up to now? 4th Reich? 5th? I've lost count. Funny thing about being in charge, though. Now the Germans actually have to make things work. I suspect they will end up wishing they'd left this job to someone else. I think herding cats would be easy in comparison to running Europe these days.
9 Dec 2011, 07:38 AM Reply Like

BLUK Comments (11)
 
Does anyone seriously think that the "leaders" as they convened have enough authority and political strength /support in their respective home markets/countries to agree on a binding agreement that gives up any part of their respective national Sovereignty? Europe so badly wants to fool the markets and enjoy a peaceful Christmas that they chose the words that an anxious market likes to believe, until 2012 when reality returns. Happy holidays, remember time to align portfolios and sell into strength!
9 Dec 2011, 10:52 AM Reply Like

credit_man Comments (166)
 
Agree with agreement weaknesses but to call it useless is a bit too much(or premature) and markets are buying into it for the time being
9 Dec 2011, 07:37 AM Reply Like

davidbdc Comments (2991)
 
I hope for their own sakes that the countries of Eastern Europe have enough common sense to reject this...... 50 years of communist party bureaucrats in Moscow telling them how to live should still be fresh enough in their minds to avoid allowing bureaucrats in Brussels to start running their lives!
9 Dec 2011, 08:27 AM Reply Like

bob adamson Comments (4492)
 
While Germany secured many of its objectives, so did France and Italy and the other member States of the EU except the UK. The majority chose to follow the road to greater quasi-federal union and will now wrestle over time with the task of building central democratic and fiscal institutions to match this bold stroke. The UK has chosen not to join in this exercise and must now ask whether its role in Europe over time will become much like that of Switzerland. The outcome of the two-day European Union summit in Brussels was a historic isolation of the UK with even Ireland, with which the UK retains many special economic relations above and beyond those related to the EU treaties, siding with the Continental Members.

The question is whether the IMF and ECB will see their way clear to now backstop the Eurozone nations’ sovereign debt and economic and fiscal stability and reform pending the hammering out of the new accord amongst the EU nations minus the UK. Arguably the answer will be yes to this and to the question of whether the EU nations approach of proceeding with a new accord or treaty beyond the confines of the Lisbon Treaty despite UK objections – too much is now at stake for the answer to either question to be no.

More murky are the questions concerning the future place of the UK and “the City” (i.e. London’s investment banks) within Europe and indeed globally in the face of the UK breach with its EU partners.

The following articles probe various aspects of the forgoing.

http://bit.ly/vhWXXH

http://econ.st/tE8LL3

http://bit.ly/uGdztt

http://bit.ly/vEHzjG

http://bit.ly/vl5HWb

http://bit.ly/tiGcTs
9 Dec 2011, 10:49 AM Reply Like

bob adamson Comments (4492)
 
The following December 10th opinion piece from Germany’s Stiegel well states in a balanced way an analysis that rings true in my ears.

http://bit.ly/sQtmYO

Clearly the UK will have to think long and hard about the relationship it wants to have with an EU that is clearly acquiring quasi-federal characteristics. It is counterproductive for it to stand alone in opposition to such further political integration and the resultant loss of national sovereignty of member States and, if the UK truly wants to retain the benefits of the common market while rejecting further political integration, then it must devise a new special status proposal and persuade its EU partners why such an associate but not full membership status for the UK is in the interests of all concerned. If the UK implicitly rejects political integration but does not actively develop a creditable associate State status proposal (i.e. spelling out the benefits the UK expects to enjoy and the EU costs, burdens and expenses of associate membership that the UK in turn is prepared to bare), then the UK faces the unpalatable prospect of being effectively marginalized in the councils of the EU or withdrawing on bad terms into a distinctly not splendid isolation.
10 Dec 2011, 01:30 PM Reply Like

Dr. V Comments (1180)
 
Exactly.

They have now agreed to do what they promised to do the first time, look for it to fall apart as soon as Germany doesn't get their way, takes their toys, and leaves the sandbox again.

Look for the US/UK Union to rival the marriage of the EU leftovers, it's on paper already, Revision 4, almost complete.
12 Dec 2011, 08:09 AM Reply Like