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Before European leaders agreed to German demands to change the Lisbon Treaty, U.S. think tank Stratfor wrote that amending the treaty would "complete Berlin's first phase of redesigning the European Union" (December 15). December 16: Phase one complete. December 17: Start phase two: a group of nations with a common taxation and spending policy-essentially a common government. Now that phase one is virtually finished, Germany has got straight to work on phase 2. On December 17, French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to work with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a more unified Europe in 2011. Phase One: A Europe Dependent on Germany European leaders agreed to amend the Lisbon Treaty to create a permanent eurozone rescue fund on the first day of a two-day summit in Brussels, December 16. The fund will succeed the European Financial Stability Facility (efsf), the current mechanism for bailing out euro nations, when it expires in 2013. The agreement is a victory for Germany. As Spiegel Online wrote, "What had been derided in summer as a unilateral demand from Berlin has now become European consensus" (December 17). Stratfor agrees, saying, "Amending the Lisbon Treaty in order to establish a permanent rescue mechanism will complete Berlin's first phase of redesigning the European Union" (op. cit.). It is not random events that have brought about German control of eurozone finances. It is phase one of a deliberate plan. EU leaders agreed to insert the following into the Lisbon Treaty: The member states whose currency is the euro may establish a stability mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole. The granting of financial assistance under the mechanism will be made subject to strict conditionality. Those two sentences will solidify Germany's control over the euro, as Stratfor points out: "The new rules on the permanent rescue fund will be enshrined in the EU constitution and will be dominated by Berlin, since the efsf-and its likely permanent successor-is an institution independent of the EU bureaucracy and thus ultimately under German control" (op. cit.). In November, Stratfor noted that Germany has set itself up to control the efsf and any successor in the same way that Washington controls the International Monetary Fund (imf). Germany controls the bailout mechanism, because it has the most money to loan out. As the Proverb says, "the borrower is servant to the lender." The efsf is not an EU institution, but a private bank based in Luxembourg, created by the European Union. EU law forbids EU institutions from bailing out member states. By setting up a private bank, the EU skirted this law. The efsf is controlled by the Eurogroup-the finance ministers from the euro nations. Germany simply refuses to participate in a bailout if it doesn't get its way. Euro nations, desperate for German cash, submit. To say that phase one is complete is not entirely accurate. The changes to the Lisbon Treaty still need to be approved by the parliaments of the 27 EU members. Europe believes it can do this without having to hold any referenda (when voters get a choice, they usually vote against Europe). There could be a hiccup or two, or even a complete stop. But the fact that Germany controls Europe so much that it was able to get all 27 national leaders to agree to this change shows that they are powerful enough to work their way around any obstacle. Phase Two: A European Superpower So far Germany controls the bailout mechanism for Europe. It sets the conditions for receiving EU cash. Phase two will create an even deeper type of union, with Germany at its head. Cerstin Gammelin, writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, states that some European financial experts "say there are some zealous economists and officials in Brussels think tanks and in the European Commission who are hell bent on getting the nations of Europe to close ranks." "Many of them hail from the Community's founding nations," Gammelin writes. These founding nations were Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. "Now they want to household jointly and lay down comparable social standards for all," the article continues. They want to make Europe one big household. "But," Gammelin writes, "they are up against nationalistic headwinds blowing in from many countries-which is why the EU commissioners have been keeping these ideas under wraps for the time being." In other words, ordinary European voters are against the idea of a joint household of Europe, and so these officials, "hell bent" on their purpose, have to find other ways to force Europe to unify. Spiegel Online also sees the financial crisis pushing Europe together. "Those in Europe who would like to see a further integration of the EU see the crisis as an opportunity," it writes. "German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble recently noted in a speech that the EU has always made its greatest steps forward in times of difficulty. The crisis mechanism may ultimately turn out to be the latest such advance" (op. cit.). The financial crisis will do more than unify Europe. It will put Germany and the Vatican at its head. The current crisis has already reduced French President Nicolas Sarkozy "to Angela Merkel's walking, talking shadow," as Gammelin put it. The EU is heading toward fiscal union-a union where nations share not only a common currency, but also the same taxation and spending policies. Since the control of taxation and spending is the most fundamental power of a sovereign state, phase two means nations handing their sovereignty to Berlin. On December 17, Merkel and Sarkozy took the most concrete steps yet toward such a union. The two leaders said that in 2011 they would present proposals to harmonize the eurozone's tax and labor polices, saying the crisis had highlighted the need to "complete monetary union with an economic union," as EurActiv.com put it. "The discussions showed yesterday that we need a more common approach in our economic policies, and we will have to talk about this in the coming months, especially in the eurozone," said Merkel. "[I]t's not just important to have solid budgets and stable finances, but it is also important that we have a common economic policy. Step by step. It will be a long process." This comes just under a week after Schäuble told the Bild am Sonntag that in 10 years there would be "what one would call a political union" in Europe. Of course Germany has some strong conditions attached to forming this kind of union. "First," writes Stratfor, "Germany is willing to entertain the idea of fiscal union with the rest of the eurozone as long as it is clear that Berlin is in charge of that union" (op. cit.). The many critics of Germany say it is not doing enough to stop a financial meltdown in Europe. They miss the point entirely. Germany has the power it has now because of the financial crisis. The worse it gets, the more willing other nations will be to submit. It is in Germany's interest that the crisis go on for longer. Only then will European nations be willing to submit to German leadership. The Trumpet has often warned that the euro crisis is all part of a long-term plan. We've often quoted this insightful statement from former UK civil servant Bernard Connolly: [T]he EU quite deliberately created the most dangerous credit bubble of all: emu [Economic Monetary Union]. And, whereas the mission of the Fed is to avoid a financial crisis, the mission of the ecb [European Central Bank] is to provoke one. The purpose of the crisis will be, as Prodi, then Commission president, said in 2002, to allow the EU to take more power for itself. The sacrificial victims will be, in the first instance, families and firms (and banks and investors) in countries such as Ireland …. Subsequently, German savers (or British taxpayers) will bear the burden of bailouts that a newly empowered "EU economic government" will ordain. German savers are bearing the brunt of the bailouts while German leaders are taking the power. "It is no surprise to Eurosceptics that Europe should have reached this fateful point where leaders must choose between the twin traumas of emu break-up or giving up their countries," wrote the Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard last week. "Nor is it a surprise to an inner core of schemers within the EU system, who have always calculated that they could exploit such a crisis to catalyze political union. However, it is a big surprise to Europe's leaders, and they do not know what to do about it." There has always been an "inner core" of schemers who knew this would happen. Back in December 2008, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote: "As both the Trumpet and men like Connolly have been warning, Berlin has been planning for this crisis before it even adopted the euro. European elites knew it would eventually come. And they will soon present a solution." Now we are seeing the solution. In that same article, Mr. Flurry wrote, "However it happens, Germany is prophesied to come out on top in this financial crisis. Social unrest and riots will eventually force Europeans to succumb to a strong united government of Europe, led ultimately not from Brussels, but from Berlin." Even now we don't see all the details. The euro may collapse, and Germany may create a new currency. Or it may save the current system. But we can already see Europe being led from Berlin. As that Trumpet article said: "Watch Germany. Watch for Germany to be at the helm in a restructuring not only of EU member nations' economies, but of the entire European Union itself!" For more information on the plan behind the economic crisis, see our article "Did the Holy Roman Empire Plan the Greek Crisis?" Rex the best.
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