Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly proposed a €500 billion ($543 billion) European Union “recovery fund” to assist countries with the economic shock of covid-19. Macron hailed this as a “profoundly unprecedented step”.

Merkel also endorsed the plan — but stressed that it would be a “one-off effort” given the “unusual nature of the crisis”. Nonetheless, commentators exuberantly praised the proposal as “Europe’s Hamiltonian Moment”, a description even German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz embraced. Eurogroup President Mário Centeno described it as “a big step toward fiscal union”.

The Merkel/Macron initiative may yet prove to be a major step forward in turning the European Union into a federal union like the United States.…  Seguir leyendo »