Title:
Europe's last chance : why the European states must form a more perfect union
Author:
Publication Date:
2017
Publication Information:
New York : Basic Books, [2017]
Physical Description:
viii, 294 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN:
9780465096855
Abstract:
"In the heart of Europe's current crisis, one of the continent's foremost statesmen urges for a radical remaking of the European Union in the model of the United States The diseases that plague Europe respect no borders. Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium and a leader in the European Parliament, shows that wherever we look-from the debt crisis in Greece to the rise of political Islam across Europe, the Syrian refugee crisis to Putin's aggressive imperialism-we see colossal challenges far too large for any single nation to overcome. In Europe's Last Chance, Verhofstadt proposes that Europe abandon the artificial divisions of nation-states and instead embrace a unified democracy on a continental scale: a United States of Europe. Revealing how this seemingly impossible dream nearly became a reality in 1953-when only a last-minute vote by the French parliament stopped a political and military unification of France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands-Verhofstadt builds a powerful and surprising argument for the necessity of unity; so that Europe remains secure, influential, and prosperous into the future"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
Part I: At the brink -- Divided we fall -- United we stand -- Part II: Delusion -- Amnesia -- The European dwarf I: the Middle Est -- The European dwarf II: Russia -- The chronic condition of nationalism -- "Quick fix" politics -- The Hungarian disgrace -- The mass grave of the Mediterranean: migration and security -- Part III: Decay -- The digital desert -- The decline of European industry -- The credit crunch -- The obese labor market -- The delusion of the European budget -- The quagmire of European institutions -- Part IV: Panic -- The Brexit -- The Grexit -- The n-euro and s-euro -- Part V: Rebirth -- A government for the euro -- A European army -- The United States of Europe -- Epilogue.
Subject Term:
Geographic Term:
Language:
English
