Europe is seeing signs of recovery but still faces many external and internal risks as it seeks to secure sustainable growth across the bloc.
Euronews was at the European Business Summit in Brussels and Maithreyi Seetharaman spoke to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble at the closing plenary session.
Maithreyi Seetharaman, Euronews: “Let’s start from the basic premise of where you think we are on the world’s stage today, and where do we need to go?”
Wolfgang Schäuble, German Finance Minister: “I think we are at a crossroads. And I would define it in the way that on the one hand expectations towards Europe from all over the world are increasing. On behalf of a lot of reasons. Geopolitical risks and so on… On the other hand doubts inside of Europe have also increased the last couple of years. Maybe there has been some turnover (turnaround) since the Brexit decision of the UK, but until the Brexit decision in the UK we suffered in a lot of member states from increasing Eurosceptic movements. We have to think about how we can strengthen the support in European constituencies, in the European population or the European integration.”
Maithreyi Seetharaman, Euronews: “This is not anything new that we have to worry about, like the International Monetary Fund talking about protectionism, trade wars potentially, because you sound almost like Mr Mario Draghi at this point – that you are not that concerned.”
Wolfgang Schäuble, German Finance Minister: “I think In Europe, especially in the European Union, growing over the decades we have been very successful in building an integrated common market. And that is an achievement that is not really disputed by now – except by the British, the strange British people in this regard. But the rest of Europe is fine with a common market. What we did not really achieve was to do, in parallel, what is needed to make a common market sustainable for the future. And then we discussed: can we build a monetary union without having a political union? And we decided… if we waited until we have a political union, we would wait for another century, possibly. The problem is: you need amendments to the treaty, to the Lisbon Treaty. And if you look at the Lisbon Treaty, how you get an amendment to the treaty, good luck!”
.Wolf_Schauble says #EU has been successful in building a common market and no one can argue that #EBS2017 #E_Room pic.twitter.com/cDGln88Vnh— EBSummit (ebsummiteurope) May 23, 2017
Maithreyi Seetharaman, Euronews: “Post-elections with (French President) Macron, the world seems to be expecting at some point a very strong Franco-German alliance. What is it going to be like, this new relationship, and most importantly, is it going to be good for both the people and businesses of Southern Europe?”
Wolfgang Schäuble, German Finance Minister: “I think it must be good for all parts of Europe… Any European integration will have to work in the direction that the gap between those actually doing well a
