As I was saying
Angela Merkel, Cancelarul Germaniei, a ţinut un discurs în Aachen, unde a expus câteva idei cu privire la oportunitatea extraordinară prezentată de criza economică pentru a pune pe picioare Statele Unite ale Europei, preferabil fără acordul populaţiei:
Euro crisis could help boost political union-Merkel
BERLIN, May 13 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday the euro's troubles offered a chance for the EU to strengthen its economic and political union, not just its common currency.
Speaking at a ceremony in Aachen where Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was awarded the Charlemagne Prize for furthering European unity, Merkel said the future of the EU was at stake in the challenges to its monetary amalgamation.
"If the euro fails, not only the currency fails. Europe fails too, and the idea of European unification. We have a common currency, but no common political and economic union. And this is exactly what we must change. To achieve this -- therein lies the opportunity of this crisis."
In a speech broadcast live on WDR television, Merkel said the crisis over the euro's future was "not just any crisis, it is the strongest test Europe has faced since 1990, if not in the 53 years since the treaties of Rome."
"This test is existential -- it must be passed. If it does not manage to (do that), the consequences for Europe and beyond are unforeseeable," the conservative Christian Democrat said.
Greece's debt emergency and a worsening deficit crunch in Spain, Portugal and Ireland have eroded the euro's strength.
But Merkel held off on backing a 110-billion-euro ($139.7 billion) bailout for Greece until it was clear contagion was starting to afflict the euro zone, dismaying France over the delay. Germany and France had long been the twin engines of EU integration.