Europe’s Political Stress Tests
In recent years, the EU – or, more accurately, the powerful countries of northern Europe – has been subjecting its weaker members to social and political “stress tests," with varying results. Now, Europe's leaders must move beyond austerity, and recognize that some countries need to renegotiate basic social contracts.
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PRINCETON – In recent years, the European Union – or, more accurately, the powerful countries of northern Europe – has been subjecting its weaker members to social and political “stress tests” in the name of fiscal rectitude. As a result, southern Europe and parts of Eastern Europe have become a kind of political laboratory, with experiments producing strikingly varied – and increasingly unpredictable – outcomes in different countries. At the last EU summit, Luxembourg’s prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, even suggested that the risk of a “social revolution” should not be excluded.