The French and German finance ministers had to answer questions in a major newspaper interview. They talked a lot, but often failed to give concrete answers.
The topics of the talks revolved around the EU’s Corona reconstruction measures, the plans for a global minimum tax, especially for large corporations, and the general outlook for the European Union. While on the subject of a global minimum tax it only became clear that the USA has the longer leverage over the EU and will probably be able to push through its ideas on the whole, the ministers revealed their disastrous plans for the future of the Eurozone.
According to Scholz, these consist of three aspects, which are the construction of a banking union, a capital market union and the introduction of the digital euro. There is no mention of a common or at least coordinated economic model, and the word budgetary discipline is preferably not even used. It is well known that plans for the introduction of a digital euro have been in the works for some time, but to make it a central point in the EU’s future planning is new. Everyone should be aware that with this form of money, full monitoring of all money transfers is possible.
And it is not difficult to imagine how this will be implemented. After all, the idea of an unconditional basic income has been haunting the debate landscape for some time. Given the idea that states can accumulate a practically unlimited amount of debt anyway, the introduction of this basic income in the form of digital euros is likely to be tackled in the foreseeable future.
Should the path outlined by Scholz and Le Maire in this interview really prevail, not only would the economy within the Eurozone be lost, but also the freedom of its citizens would no longer exist.
Simon Dierich 