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exchange rate, the standard mechanism for balancing out differences between national economies. A ‘Stability Pact’, supposedly committing members to budgetary restraint, was an inadequate substitute. By 2004, it was being flouted by France and Germany, the very nations responsible for the single currency’s existence. Short of a fiscal union, it is hard to see just what mechanism could have replaced floating exchange rates so as to enable countries with economic imbalances to correct them. Accordingly when weak and often imprudently managed economies descended into
programme. A range of EU-led initiatives in the former Yugoslavia (the ‘Royaumont’ process for democracy and civil society in South-eastern Europe, the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe launched in 1999 and the SAP) is also premised on minority protection and the related matter of fostering ‘good-neighbourly’ relations. The EU’s influence on these matters has been greatest when improvement has been a
environment and the agro-pastoral economy (SN 1999). However, questions about the way in which such a fiscal system might accord with European directives, policies and constraints, such as the Growth and Stability Pact, are left untouched by the party. In contrast, the IRS argues that Sardinia needs to break free from the shackles of Rome to develop its economic base. It believes ‘autonomy’ has resulted in economic deprivation; the destruction of Sardinia’s forests and agricultural economy; the pillaging of its mineral resources; cultural stigmatisation and the ‘shame’ of
united Europe, any more than there is anything intrinsically progressive or internationalist about the United Kingdom’ (SSP 2004: 3). The SSP advocated fiscal independence outside the European Single Market, and rejected the European currency, which was viewed as a ‘one-size-fits-all right-wing monetary regime’ that held states as ‘economic prisoners’ to the European Central Bank (SSP 2004: 10–11). The SSP also argued that the 3446 Using Europe 16/4/10 12:12 Page 93 SCOTTISH PARTY RESPONSES TO EUROPE AND DEVOLUTION 93 Growth and Stability Pact, which imposed
, fighting unemployment and stimulating growth. Its freedom of action is correspondingly wider. Prodi said: ‘I know very well that the Stability Pact is stupid, like all decisions that are rigid’. In 2002 real interest rates, i.e. allowing for inflation, were negative in countries like Spain and Portugal, signifying that keeping money in the bank there meant a loss for the depositor. The European Commission in 2002 called on the EMU countries in particular to lower labour costs and integrate their markets for energy, communications and financial services. Tax reforms would
/1999. 40 European Commission (2003) ‘… conflict prevention …’: 10. 41 The EU has Special Representatives in Afghanistan, Africa the Great Lakes region, the Middle East, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central Asia, Macedonia, Moldova, South Caucasus, Sudan, Kosovo, and to the Stability Pact for South Eastern
its broader political interpretation. The broad approach to security adopted by NATO in its New Strategic Concept was reflected in the response of other institutions to the changing European order. Preventive diplomacy, crisis management and peacekeeping are themes shared by NATO, the WEU, the Union and the OSCE. The latter had some recognition as the overarching organisation but was, and still is, a considerable distance from being Europe’s security institution par excellence. Aspects of the OSCE role can also be seen in the EU’s promotion of a European Stability
stable non-EU countries to which irregular migrants can be returned, even if they merely passed through such countries en route to Europe. 139 Europe’s externalization policy creates a “ring of protection” outside the European Union. It involves a “close partnership” with non-EU states from near and far through programs such as the Neighborhood Policy, Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the Balkan Stability Pact, the Africa–EU Partnership, the Valletta Action Plan, the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility, and so on. These policies are designed to enforce migration