Sbsp affirmative- arl lab- ndi 2011

***Counterplans***

***AT: EU CP and Soft Power NB***

No Solvency

No solvency – internal divisions prevent success

No solvency – EU can’t solve own issues

London ’11 ( Jill Treanor, Staff Writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. “EU doubts over debt strategy” http://www.smh.com.au/world/eu-doubts-over-debt-strategy-20110720-1houc.html. July 21, 2011)
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has quashed hopes of a lasting solution for Greece at today's crucial summit of European leaders, even as the International Monetary Fund warned of the repercussions for global economic growth if the euro zone's debt crisis was not tackled quickly. Amid suggestions that banks could be slapped with a levy of €10 billion ($A13.3 billion) over three years to raise €30 billion for another Greek bailout, the German Chancellor insisted that there would not be a ''spectacular event'', such as a restructuring of Greece's debt. ''Further steps will be necessary and not just one spectacular event which solves everything,'' she said. Economists warned that indecision after today's summit could cause severe tension in the markets. Advertisement: Story continues below Gabriel Stein, at Lombard Street Research, said: ''Ministers must come up with some solution that does not involve postponing once again the difficult positions that alone can solve the fiscal crisis. Otherwise the next eruption of the crisis won't be [later this year], it is more likely to be next week. Moreover, each failure to act raises the threshold for what must be done next time.'' In an assessment of euro zone policies, the IMF also piled pressure on European leaders to act to solve the crisis. ''It would be very costly not just for the euro zone but for the global economy to delay tackling the sovereign crisis,'' the IMF's Luc Everaert said. But for now some European Union leaders remain in disagreement with the European Central Bank, which has been arguing that a default by Greece would mean it could no longer provide funds to domestic banks. Leaders such as Dr Merkel believe the private sector needs to shoulder the burden of rescuing Greece. However, there was confusion in the markets yesterday when Ewald Nowotny, head of Austria's central bank, appeared to suggest that Greece could default on its debt without causing a crisis for its banking sector. He later issued a statement insisting that he shared the view of the ECB that a default was unpalatable. The confusion about the stance of the ECB towards Greece pushed yields on two-year Greek bonds through 40 per cent as speculation mounted that a default was more likely. European leaders are at odds with one another and with the ECB over demands by Germany and Finland that private investors bear some of the burden of a new Greek bailout. While Dr Merkel said the crisis couldn't be resolved in ''one spectacular step'', Greek counterpart George Papandreou said the summit could be a ''make-or-break moment'' for the euro region. Greece's sovereign-debt crisis risks contaminating the rest of the euro region even if officials avert a default, the IMF has warned. The European Central Bank continues to demand a response that will not be considered by ratings agencies to be the first default among countries that use the euro. It amounts to what observers describe as a game of political and financial chicken. The markets are becoming fed up with the uncertainty. Investors are now demanding sharply higher interest rates to buy the debt of Italy and Spain - the third and fourth-largest economies in the euro zone. Otherwise, analysts warn, continued confusion about the euro will spread to other weak members of the euro zone. Italy alone has debts of 120 per cent of its annual gross domestic product, and must refinance nearly a quarter of its debt - nearly €400 billion - in the next 18 months. That figure alone is larger than all of Greece's debt of some €340 billion.

No solvency – debt crisis collapses EU

Furedi ’11 (Frank, Staff Writer for Spiked and author of On Tolerance: A Defence of Moral Independence. “Why the EU is so clueless about the Euro crisis” http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/printable/10908/. 20 July 2011)
The slide of the Euro on the money markets signals the possibility that the European Union may not survive its sovereign-debt contagion in its present form. However, European policymakers refuse to acknowledge their own responsibility for this problem and are reluctant to take any decisive action to contain it. Policymakers often indulge in what is called responsibility-avoidance. EU functionaries have perfected the practice of responsibility-avoidance; in fact they have transformed it into an artform. In recent years, whenever I talked to insiders in the Brussels beltway, they often lectured me about Britain’s annoying and disappointing Euro-sceptics. In the months following the first stage of the Euro-crisis, their disappointment shifted its attentions to Germany. All of a sudden, German unilateralism became the spectre haunting the EU political class. At times, one even heard it suggested that the Germans were deliberately trying to transform Europe’s little economic difficulty into a major crisis in order to extend and consolidate their influence over the continent. That was then. In recent weeks, after the downgrading of Portugal’s sovereign debt to junk status, EU groupspeak has mutated into a frenzy of invective against the big three American credit-rating agencies: Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch. All of a sudden these agencies stand accused of malevolently conspiring to destroy Europe. The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durrao Barroso, swiftly assumed leadership of this depressing blame game, condemning Moody’s for being responsible for Portugal’s economic predicament. He denounced the company’s analysis of Portugal’s financial crisis as biased and speculative. Barroso’s refusal to confront Europe’s financial crisis head-on is shared by a significant section of the EU political establishment. However, they rarely put forward their alternative analysis, their blame game, with any conviction. Indeed, in recent weeks the impression I got when talking to people in Brussels is that they sense that Greece is only the beginning and that what is at stake is not only the Euro but the whole EU project. I have visited Brussels regularly during the past five years, but this is the first time that my interlocutors revealed their fears that the Euro crisis is more than a financial one. It might also represent the end of an era, they suggest. Since my visit to Brussels last week, the Euro has slid even further on the money markets and now Italy shows every sign of becoming the new Portugal, if not the new Greece. However, what’s really fascinating about recent developments is not the financial crisis but the political paralysis afflicting EU policymakers. Typically, politicians are pointing the finger of blame at each other. Italian president Silvio Berlusconi has openly clashed with his finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, though no doubt they agree that an American credit-rating agency is to blame for exposing the mess that the Italian economy is in. The rhetoric of responsibility aversion amongst EU policymakers is underpinned by the realisation that their institution lacks the authority and the political resources to deal with the current crisis. It is important to remember that the EU is a technocratic institution that has always responded to challenges by cobbling together deals behind closed doors. From its inception, the EU was an elitist managerial project that was able to construct and promote its agenda without having to respond directly to popular pressure. Decisions are never arrived at through public debate, and the majority of EU laws are formulated by the hundreds of secret working groups set up by the Council of the EU. Most of the sessions of the Council of Ministers are held in private, and the EU’s unelected European Commission has the sole right to put forward legislation. The most distinctive feature of the EU’s governance is that it is systematically pursued through insulated decision-making. For decades the EU political establishment has self-consciously constructed institutions that could insulate it from the necessity of having to respond to the type of public pressure faced by a democratic parliament. This invisible decision-making allowed a variety of political actors in Brussels, and in Europe’s national capitals, to avoid taking responsibility for unpopular decisions. In effect, policymakers were insulated from having to account for the consequences of their decisions. While insulated decision-making was an excellent way to avoid responsibility, it also eroded the EU’s capacity to respond decisively to unfolding events. The slowness with which EU ministers responded to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland last year exposed a serious failure of responsible decision-making. The unnecessary shutting down of European airspace was an act of a political establishment estranged from the ethos of leadership. Insulated from the populace, how could this institution ever learn what true leadership and real political initiative are all about? But this all pales into insignificance in comparison with the present financial crisis. The prerequisite for dealing with the decline of the Euro is crisis management exercised through political leadership. It requires that political leaders actually tell it like it is and go out and win support for the painful measures required to restore economic stability. Political leadership is not simply a desirable thing. It is essential. For without winning over a significant section of the European electorate, it will prove extremely difficult for European institutions to restore financial order in Europe. Regrettably, the EU establishment lacks the capacity to offer such leadership. Policymakers who are used to behind-the-scenes maneuvering are rarely able to reinvent themselves as persuasive leaders. It is ironic that even today there are many EU apologists who refuse to acknowledge the negative consequences of the EU’s democratic deficit. Amartya Sen, the Harvard University professor and a Nobel prize-winning economist, recently accused the credit-rating agencies of undermining legitimate governments and also blamed them for the marginalisation of the democratic tradition of Europe. He takes strong exception to the unopposed power of rating agencies and their power to issue unilateral commands. Typically, he is oblivious to the unilateral commands of Brussels. No doubt the rating agencies do have their own agenda, and they are certainly no more democratic than the European Commission. But good on them for forcing the EU to face the real world.

No solvency – internal divisions from immigration issues block

Poggioli ‘11(Sylvia, Senior European correspondent for NPR’s foreign desk. “Immigration Issues Test Unity Of The European Union”. http://www.npr.org/2011/04/18/135496066/immigration-issues-test-unity-of-the-european-union. April 18, 2011)
In recent months, the European Union has been shaken by internal divisions over management of the single currency, the euro, and over NATO intervention in Libya. Now, even sharper differences have emerged over immigration. A showdown is under way at the France-Italy border on the Riviera, where thousands of recently arrived Tunisian migrants are testing the notion of a united Europe. In recent weeks, France has sent some 2,000 Tunisians back to Italy. Paris rejects Italy's decision to issue six-month permits to the 25,000 Tunisians who have landed on its shores since January. When a train from Italy pulls into Menton-Garavan station, members of France's anti-riot police force are waiting to board it. They single out a small group of dark-skinned young men, ask to see their identification, then take them in for questioning. On Sunday, fearing protests by anti-globalists, France temporarily blocked all trains from Italy. Challenges Crossing Borders The mood in Menton, like the rest of France, is not welcoming for new arrivals. The beachfront promenade extends for miles — ideal for jogging and leisurely walks. An elderly stroller has made the Riviera her retirement home. "There are so many Tunisians here, there so many other people here, it is becoming more and more aggressive," she says. "Myself — I don't go out at night, I am afraid. I don't think it is correct what the Italian government is doing. They should absorb them themselves." Like many other people here, the woman won't give her name for fear of reprisals, but she says she is Greek-born, with a British passport, living in France and calls herself European. But across the border in Ventimiglia, Tunisian migrants are beginning to question the notion of a borderless Europe. Lizar Taher, a Tunisian student, asks, "If Italy is a member of the EU, why does France say no, why does Germany say no?" EnlargeSylvia Poggioli/NPR The train station at Ventimiglia, in northern Italy. Tunisian migrants sleep on cardboard sheets at the station, waiting to be issued temporary travel permits. After a hazardous sea journey from Tunisia to the island of Lampedusa, hundreds of migrants have gathered at the border. They sleep in the train station on cardboard sheets, waiting for new temporary travel permits, issued, Rome says, for humanitarian reasons. But France insists all migrants must have a valid passport and hold sufficient sums of cash. Jamel Hakimi says that's an impossible demand. "If you have a place to sleep," he says, "you need 30 euros a day — that's 2,700 euros for three months. And for those with no place to sleep," Hakimi adds, "it's 5,600 for three months. They're blocking us all." Isolationism On The Rise In Europe? It's not just France that doesn't want them — Austria and Belgium are also threatening to close their borders and deploy anti-riot police. And a German official went so far as to accuse Italy of blackmailing its EU allies — a method, he said, typical of the mafia. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini accused the EU of shirking its collective responsibilities. "Not France, not Italy, not Germany, [but] Europe," Frattini said, "and Europe is doing nothing about that, so Europe is divided. European integration failed on immigration." Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi went further, wondering whether there is any sense in remaining within the European Union — an unprecedented remark in the EU's 50-year history which some analysts say helps foment fears and bolster the government's credentials on the extreme right. Callers to the Northern League radio station are venting their anger. "I'm proud to be a racist," one caller says. "We've gotten nothing from Europe; Italy should leave the EU." The same isolationist neo-nationalism is growing throughout much of Europe. Extreme right-wing parties are gaining ground — even in old Scandinavian socialist strongholds. But the clash over immigration could prove to be the most divisive among the 27 EU member states.

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