Let's save Europe!

Since the crises began in 2007, in Europe we believed that if we kept deficits below 3% of GDP, debt below 60% of GDP, and inflation below 2% per annum, the market would ensure growth and stability. However this is not enough. We need an overwhelming fiscal and monetary discipline if we want the European Union to fulfill its dream of “the United States of Europe, a lobby for the integration cause” as Jean Monnet "the father of the EU" the “l’Inspirateur” said.

It is not because of the single market, many people suggest that the Single European Act was made to set the objective of establishing a single market in order to made it easy for money to leave the banks of the weaker countries, forcing these banks to contract lending, weakening the weak further, but of course this is not true. The austerity has not worked yet because it has been implanted in a horrible way, and without any conviction. Citizens in Greece, Spain or Portugal have all voted in large numbers for parties opposed to austerity and more favorable to demagogy. Luckily there are still politicians who give hope to the European dream as is the case of the recently chosen Macron in France.

Many European citizens believed that when they joined the euro, they would give up their economic sovereignty. This is not true at all because the European Central Bank represents all the economies that are part of the eurozone, and each country has its group of banking professionals, they are the supervisors of the banking system of each country together with the European Central Bank. So that the ECB has a social capital, in which each country owns a part of it. The ECB is in charge of maintaining a stable monetary policy and not of making the poor more poor and the rich richer than before, it is obvious.

The ambition of the euro is to bring prosperity to Europe. This would promote economic and political integration. The euro is a project based on integration, in order to create the institutions that would ensure success. We have made many reforms, and many more are coming to make of the European Union a machine of prosperity and not of divergence like many enlightened they are divulging.

To prove what I said before, I would like to explain my experience as a student of economics, in the Erasmus Mobility Program of the European Union. For almost ten months away from home (Galicia, Spain) I have traveled around 13 countries, countries like Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Germany, Turkey, Croatia or Macedonia among many others. The experience that I have lived as a European student is priceless. As you can perceive, not all of these countries are part of the EU completely, but ALL of them are either in the process of dialogue, waiting or taking the appropriate steps to announce their candidacy being part of the Council of Europe.

In these countries I always wondered “What do people think about the European Union?” or “Do you live better or worse in this country since the arrival of the European Union?” and the conclusions were always the same, people are tired of corruption and clientelistic politics, which have led many countries to the brink of bankruptcy. However in general the European Union has provided more benefits than problems for them.

We should not let bad politicians, demagogues, or extremists claim to be about stability and sustained growth. We should ignore these characters and focus on improving our fiscal policies, because even “the best of the monetary policy” that we have implemented, it will not work if we do not implement a good fiscal policy. It is certain that fiscal policy is one of the most important tools of development, clear example of this are Ireland, Germany or Finland. Because it is not about not exerting fiscal pressure, or exercising it excessively. It is about knowing how to manage the proceeds.

Me as a Spaniard and European, I am proud and very happy for the French people, who elected a new president Emmanuel Macron with common sense and a great European spirit, in order to defeat the extremist Le Pen.

However as the great “father of the European Union” once said

- People only accept change when they are faced with necessity, and only recognize necessity when a crisis is upon them -

Let’s work together to make Europe more united, and a visionary EU, not a dream broken by politicians with no perception of the future and extremist policies inappropriate for a democracy.