Slow and steady

Europe, slow and steady - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt isn't too agitated about the alleged crisis in the European Union at the moment.

He sees integration moving forward, slowly and steadily, as their is an increasing realisation that the nation states of Europe are too small for the big challenges ahead.

But it will be necessary for political leaders to deal with the issues that are now concerning the electorates throughout Europe.

"Currently, the most important aspect of the illness is clearly high unemployment. Anyone who examines its origins will see that it is only in the smallest part due to any failings in the EU, in no way due to the euro and hardly at all to globalization, but rather to failures within the member states. That applies for employment-market and wage policies, for some extravagances in welfare and social policy, and for economic overregulation."

That's the way it is. National policies often needs to be changed.

And the EU can be a great help in that regard