04/09/2012
On the day that Moody's rating agency has warned the EU that it has
put it on notice that its triple-A credit is at risk, we learn that on of the proximate causes â the burgeoning bailout funds â are causing havoc with the German constitutional court.
Apparently, when a complaint is made to the court, individual citizens can add their names to it and,
in this case, about 37,000 have lodged their opposition to the ESM, making this an all-time record.
The original case was filed by the "Europe needs more democracy" alliance in June, which was then supported by close to 12,000 people. But that number has now tripled in less than two months. Previously, the biggest complaint to Karlsruhe was on 2007, on data retention. That amassed 35,000 signatures.
This current surge will not please the incoming head of the ESM, Klaus Regling. He
is telling anyone who will listen that the fund would make "no sense" without Germany.
He points to the predecessor fund, the EFSF, stating that if it had not existed, Portugal and Ireland would probably no longer be in the euro zone. Currently, Regling heads 57 staff and by the summer of next year, he wants to increase the workforce to 100.
Once they get down to work, Regling believes that the eurocrisis could be overcome in one or two years, as long as all countries were strict in meeting their currency zone requirements and continuously improved their competitiveness.
The Karlsruhe 37,000 would almost certainly disagree, although there might be a ready market for whatever it is that Regling is taking, if he believes the crisis can be over within two years.
