In the long hours of a bitter Brussels night, Europe changed.
Last night most of Europe's governments gave up a chunk of their sovereignty. In the future, tax and spending plans will be shown to European officials before national governments.
Elmar Brok, a senior German Christian Democrat MEP close to Dr Merkel, said the EU ''must marginalise Britain, so the country comes to feel its loss of influence''.
''The Treaty of Lisbon explicitly opens the possibility of a country's withdrawal,'' he said. ''The British must now decide whether they are for or against Europe.''
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday downplayed Standard & Poor's warnings, but the possibility that a downgrade of eurozone countries could weaken the creditworthiness of Europe's bailout fund complicates the region's fight against the crisis.
The S&P warning left out only two of 17 countries that use the euro: Cyprus, whose bonds have near-junk status, and Greece, whose low ratings already suggest it is likely to default soon anyway.
The first article is general, and he second relates specifically to the United Kingdom. Both should be read.
Some friends of mine in the UK, conservatives by thee way, are all for the UK pulling out of the Eurozone and they are very happy that the UK did not adopt the Euro. Some other friends in both France and Germany want the Eurozone to stay but don't want to pay anything to help Greece, etc. I better ad that all of these friends are well off, fairly conservative, and all the men are either retired or at least former military, which is how I first met them.
Opinions and comments?????
Ken
Conservative, Libertarian, Life member of the NRA and VFW
