German policies leading to EU break-up: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Ian Williams, a senior analyst with Foreign Policy in Focus from New York, about German officials’ call for improvements to the European Union to avoid destruction of the bloc.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: So, we have EU officials, Germans in this case, calling for a more pragmatic and intergovernmental approach to hash out issues in the union. Critics have repeatedly said that the bloc is growing more and more undemocratic. What kind of mismanagement has brought the EU to this juncture?

Williams: Well, it's very much that German governmental arrogance has done it. And I think that their initial reaction to the British vote to leave was, ‘we have to be very tough with the British to make sure no one else thinks about it,’ but then they realized that this isn't a case of stomping on poor little Greece to make sure the German banks are paid back.

This is one of Germany's biggest trading partners - Britain - that they can’t just stomp on it and cut off relations because they'll cause huge damage to Germany itself if they do so. They have to negotiate a very delicate exit if there's going to be it an exit. And I suggest, the logic that's coming along now is that if they have to adjust the terms to keep other people from leaving. For example, the Austrian Supreme High Court has ruled that they need a new ballot if the really ultra right-wing guy gets in there then that will probably be followed by a part of the EU as well.

So, they're facing the whole project falling apart and they have to rethink the terms of it. If they do that then they're basically offering a let-down to the British because those that say that Cameron’s conservative or his successor or Jeremy Corbin if he is still there can turn around and say look we can get a better deal, we need to reconsider this, we can implement the social charter that you are doing so well on the 1990s and we'll make it more acceptable to Labour supporters. There are many different ways that could follow from this change in attitude from the Germans based upon their realization that they need Britain as much as Britain needs them.

Press TV: Many say if these problems are not addressed accordingly and some fundamental reforms do not take place, this Brexit could be the beginning of EU disintegration. Do you think that the EU will make the necessary changes in time to regain its appeal from its member states and avoid total destruction?

Williams: Well the consistency of the last decade or so has been that the Germans have designed the conditions to benefit themselves while adopting what they think is moral high ground of tightening belts for everybody else. But once it comes back to the German elites, the bankers and industrialists that they stand to suffer considerably from the meltdown; then, they will reconsider and they’ll be prepared to make some more sacrifices to allow better terms for the French, for Austria, for Britain even and to reconsider where the European Union goes.

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