European Council 8 to 9 December 2011: Euro solution or failure? (Updated)

Paris, Berlin or Brussels... Credible, accountable and democratic government is not on the cards for the European Union or the eurozone, so what can we expect from the European Council Thursday and Friday, 8 to 9 December 2011?

Among many, many, let us look at some of the best contributions on the web.

BBC News Europe offers Q&A: Key EU summit on debt crisis, a clearly written introduction to main issues.

Place du Luxembourg presented a well documented and more detailed analysis in The latest Franco-German Agreement: Is it enough?

Jean Quatremer has been busy on the Coulisses de Bruxelles blog, covering important aspect of the euro crisis. Among his contribution is Vers une union budgétaire européenne.

Credibility is not confined to market players and credit rating agencies, but the solutions offered by the national leaders are evaluated by EU citizens. On Social Europe Journal, Fredrik Jansson notes that support for euro entry has dropped to less than ten per cent in Sweden, opposition having climbed to 88% (an increase of about 40 percentage points in two years).

FT Alphaville notes condemnation from Martin Wolf: Merkozy failed to save the eurozone.

The FT Brussels blog notes a Twitter rebellion against automatic sanctions, by the commissioner @LaszloAndorEU.

For Tsigos the crisis is fundamentally political. A truly united Europe can only be a Federal Europe, with a directly elected European government for the European citizens.

On Europe 27 etc, Jamel de l'Or takes on the unstable duopoly Merkozy, in L'Union budgétaire – pour qui ? Russian style democracy or the United States of Europe?

***

It is hard to be an optimist, or even optimistic, these days.


Update 7 December 2011: Just saw this blog post a few minutes old, by Place du Luxembourg on why intergovernmental solutions do not work.



Ralf Grahn