Reply #7: Crisis in Ireland Tests Eurozone Vision of Common Currency, Common Interests [View All]

[Demeter]

http://www.truth-out.org/crisis-ireland-tests-eurozone-vision-common-currency-common-interests65400


When the euro was launched 11 years ago, it was celebrated as the culmination of a vision of postwar Europe that was erasing borders and dismantling its nationalistic past. It was heralded as a great unifier of nations with common interests and equally cherished values.

But a series of financial crises is shaking Europe’s core and raising fresh questions about its single currency as well as the solidarity of a union whose cooperation and stability date to the aftermath of World War II.

From the Greek financial disaster earlier this year, to an Irish bank debt crisis that has pushed Ireland to accept up to $120 billion in bailout funds, Europe is struggling to rescue a currency so closely linked to its unity that German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said, "If the euro fails, Europe fails."

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