Now that the European institutions have largely won the day by making a reticent Greek government accept terrible terms for a third bailout, there is a number of reactions from everywhere in the world. High ranking EU officials, politicians, economists and journalists, everyone is writing, digressing and reacting after the Greek drama that has taken place over the last few weeks. Nobody besides perhaps Wolfgang Schauble, the German Minister of Finance and the voice of German conservatism within the Christian Democratic Union of Germany-Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CDU/CSU), thinks that the deal reached will give good results.
Everyone else, on the other hand, agrees that the Greek government has failed to properly manage the situation. Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, recently told Fareed Zacharia in an interview that he was amazed to see the Greek government totally unprepared for an alternative solution to the crisis, meaning that the Greek government did not have a plan B in a situation where the authorities were rejecting the plan of "austerity plus reforms" imposed by the European institutions.
What Krugman, et al., did not really consider thoroughly is the fact that European integration has gone way beyond any point of no return. Greece has been member since 1981, which is 34 years of EU membership, during which every development has been shaped according to EU rules of competition, standards and free circulation of four factors of production, just to name a few. Greece has not behaved at all like an ordinary EU member state, taking every possible occasion to bypass the Acquis Communautaire and the very few common positions on external policy. Just a reminder of Greece's attitude during the embargo imposed on Serbia back in 1992 would show that the last country morally entitled to ask for more European solidarity is probably Greece itself.
But this does not change a very visible fact that Greece is irreversibly part of the EU, its external relations, infrastructure, budget and legislation are European. If Greece exits the eurozone - into which it should never have been accepted in the first place - it will not become just another country having a deep economic crisis and the onus to hugely devaluate its national currency. It was the case of Argentina and Turkey some 16 years ago, and both economies managed to recover steadily, albeit with difficulty. Greece is in no such situation. There is no national currency, and for the first time in history, a bankrupt economy has a very strong currency it cannot manage.
It is therefore extremely useless to try to implement conventional recipes for a situation that has no antecedent. This is exactly what Schauble and the financial authorities are trying to impose on Greece. Jürgen Habermas once said that the legitimacy of the EU, which is an elitist project, resides in the fact that it delivers. It delivers stability, freedom, peace, wealth and more cooperation and integration than ever. The day the EU refuses to deliver, its attractiveness, its soft-power will inexorably vanish.
Yes, it is a fact that Greece has always been the black sheep of the family in European integration. Yes, Greece failed to show any European solidarity at the time when both Spain and Portugal were expecting to become members. Yes, Greece has been the obstacle between Turkey and the EU. Now if Greece is punished - fined for the way it is being done for having failed to be a good European, everyone in the line loses, not only Greece, but the whole EU integration and, ultimately, Turkey.
