Just say no

Under pressure from Germany and France, the Greek prime minister has dropped plans to hold a referendum on the euro rescue deal. We look at media comment.

Brute force in the new Europe

The Daily Telegraph believes that loss of national sovereignty in the European Union is an inevitable result of the euro crisis.

It should surprise no one that George Papandreou’s proposal for a national referendum on the latest European bail-out deal should have lasted just 72 hours before being bulldozed into oblivion by the Germans and French. … It is now generally accepted that the move towards fiscal as well as monetary union is the only feasible way in which the single currency can be made to work. Yet it will mean such bullying becomes the norm, since national sovereignty will routinely have to play second fiddle to the diktats not only of the European Central Bank, but also of a central European Treasury, whose creation can now only be a matter of time. ….

Greece on the brink

The International Herald Tribune writes that European leaders need to take more responsibility for the Greek financial disaster.

… Europe’s leaders should have paid more attention to the distress of ordinary Greeks and less to the distress of well-heeled bankers. … Mr. Papandreou was already making real progress. But it was becoming impossible to keep laying off thousands of state workers while austerity choked off any possibility of their finding private sector jobs or to keep slashing social benefits and services while the numbers of poor and unemployed surged. …