Relating to today’s "State of the Union Address" by European Commission president José Manuel Durão Barroso, Dieter Spöri, President of the European Movement Germany (EM Germany), explained:

“The Commission president’s speech contains two strong messages: Most pivotal was Barroso’s clear positioning in favour of the implementation of a financial transaction tax. Up to now the EU’s reforms aiming at the regulation of the financial markets amount to nothing more than dull instruments. It is crucial for the Commission to take the initiative despite British barrage. Without more efficient measures towards the containment of massive speculations in the financial market, all current attempts to overcome the euro zone’s debt crisis with rescue funds will end in a ceaseless race between speculation and politics – much like the one between hare and hedgehog.”

Another crucial issue from Spöri’s point of view is Barroso’s commitment to a higher level of political integration within the EU: “The Commission president derived the only appropriate consequence from the serious challenge Europe is confronted with: With hitherto unfamiliar passion he stood up for a deepening of political integration in the EU. The euro zone’s debt crisis in particular has to be traced back to the severe discrepancy between economic and political integration. A fortification of collective instruments and democratically legitimated institutions is the only way to prevent the association of states from drifting apart.”

The 218 member organisations of EM Germany committed themselves to European integration in the light of the current international debt crisis demanding more solidarity in Europe. Therefore, EM Germany’s member organisations resolved the “Berlin Declaration of the Civil Society” in June 2011, in which they express their deep concerns about a possible failure of the euro: Especially Germany as an economically strong EU member was threatened not only by incalculable financial and economic effects, but possibly had to deal with more far-reaching consequences. The collapse of the euro zone could question the whole European model of progress. Thanks to European integration, all European states – not only euro countries – could have a positive common prospect of the future.