European Union in 2012

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For the most part, 2012 was a year of struggle for the European Union; economic growth was flat at best, and unemployment remained stubbornly high. The austerity plans that national governments had put into place to reduce their deficits and debts met with strong resistance across the 27-country bloc, from Greece in the east to Portugal in the west. The future of the 13-year-old euro currency was constantly in doubt as the difficulties of sustaining a monetary union across countries with widely divergent economic prospects were harshly exposed in such difficult times.

In October, however, amid the relentless crises and seemingly endless emergency summits, there was one piece of unexpectedly good news that did much to restore morale and a sense of purpose. The EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work in advancing peace in Europe since World War II. The committee that conveyed the award said that the bloc had transformed Europe “from a continent of war to a continent of peace.” It recognized the EU’s immediate economic difficulties and the resulting social unrest, but it looked back across six decades at the organization’s wider achievements. Those, it said, included bringing reconciliation between France and Germany and accelerating the economic progress of Spain, Portugal, and the formerly communist countries of central and eastern Europe. For a few days in October, EU leaders were able to celebrate a wider purpose than day-to-day crisis management. European Commission Pres. José Manuel Barroso described the award as a “great honour.” He added, “This started after the war—putting together former enemies. It started with 6 countries, and we are now 27. Another one [Croatia] is going to join us next year, and more want to come. So the EU is the most important project for peace in terms of transnational, supranational cooperation.”

For much of 2012, however, that statement did not ring true. Even the firmest believers in European integration feared that the austerity imposed on member countries might cause the whole project to be blown apart in a wave of public anger. The year opened with nine countries’ having had their credit ratings downgraded by the rating agency Standard & Poor’s. France and Austria were stripped of their AAA ratings, and Cyprus and Portugal had their debts reclassified as junk. The year began as the last two years had ended, with summit after summit to address the euro crisis as fears grew that indebted countries would be forced out of the euro zone—a move that would undermine the EU’s defining mission of “ever closer union.”

Despite its problems, the European Union drew comfort from knowing that it was still a club that outsiders wanted to join. At the end of January, the people of Croatia voted in a referendum to take up a hard-won offer to join on July 1, 2013. Croatia’s progress toward membership had stalled as a result of its inability to track down Ante Gotovina, a former Croatian general who was accused of having committed war crimes during the breakup of Yugoslavia. Gotovina was apprehended in Spain in 2005, and in 2011 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia sentenced him to 24 years in prison, though that sentence was overturned on appeal in November 2012.

In early February deep uncertainty prevailed. Violent protests broke out in Athens as the Greek parliament debated austerity measures demanded by the EU as a condition for a bailout that was intended to put the hugely debt-ridden country on a route back to financial health. The parliament approved the harsh cuts, opening the way for $173 billion of bailout funds. That failed to settle markets, however, as fears grew that Greece would still default on its debts and that the contagion would spread to other indebted nations in the bloc. The credit-rating agency Moody’s then cut the debt ratings of six EU countries, including G8 member Italy. It also downgraded the economic outlook for France and the United Kingdom. In March member states agreed on a new “fiscal compact”—a binding set of economic rules to make sure that they could not overspend again—although the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, which were not members of the euro area, preferred not to sign. There were angry protests in Barcelona and Madrid when the Spanish government announced spending cuts of almost 10% compared with the previous year’s budget. The price of Spanish bonds was rising inexorably, which meant that the government would have to pay more to service its debt. Even in the prosperous Netherlands, the strains were showing. In April the Dutch government collapsed as a result of disagreements over a proposed budget, and the EU headed into its deepest period of uncertainty since the euro crisis began.

Politicians felt the consequences, too: in May candidates who offered a path other than austerity began sweeping into power. In France the Socialist François Hollande ousted Nicolas Sarkozy as president and promised to do more to promote growth. “I’m sure that in many European countries there is relief and hope at the idea that austerity does not have to be our only fate,” Hollande told the French people after his victory. In Italy protest parties and parties from the fringes dominated in local elections as the people registered their disgust at the way rich elites had kept a grip on power for so long. In June, amid growing talk of a Greek exit from the euro area, the Greek people eventually handed victory to the pro-austerity New Democracy party, which formed a coalition government with PASOK and the Democratic Left. A further round of spending cuts was passed in the hope that this would persuade Brussels to release an additional $38 billion in bailout funds. In June the price of Spanish bonds soared, which made it hugely expensive for Madrid to borrow on the international markets, and the EU pledged €100 billion (about $125 billion) to recapitalize Spain’s ailing banks.

Amid the economic turmoil, the EU was still taking an active role on the world stage. One of the most pressing issues was the ongoing bloodshed in Syria. In July EU foreign ministers tightened sanctions against supporters of Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad, and searches of ships and aircraft bound for Syria were stepped up to prevent arms from being taken into the country. In addition, the union continued to look to a future with still more members. Serbia, another key player in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, was granted candidate status in March, and Albania received conditional candidate status in October. Later in October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to pursuing accession talks with Turkey.

In September there was some relief from the seemingly endless euro crisis when the European Central Bank (ECB) agreed to a plan under which it could, if required, buy a potentially unlimited number of bonds to lower the borrowing costs in struggling member states. ECB Pres. Mario Draghi said that the plan should address “unfounded fears” of investors about the survival of the euro, and the markets, for a time at least, responded positively.

As the “firefighting” continued, so too, however, did the deep thinking about how to make the euro area more stable for the future. In June moves were made to create a full-fledged euro-zone banking union with wide-ranging supervisory powers vested in the ECB. In effect, the banks of euro countries would be monitored by one supranational authority. By August Barroso was talking of the banking union as a huge step toward stability. “Establishing a banking union by 2013 will not give Europe a magic wand with which to wave away the economic crisis overnight,” he said. “But it is a major and crucial step to restoring the confidence of Europe’s citizens, international partners, and investors.” He added that the EU, rather than splintering in response to crisis, would integrate more deeply. In June EU foreign ministers drew up a paper calling for a federal structure for the EU, with a directly elected president of the Commission (the president currently was appointed by heads of governments), a pan-European finance minister, and a two-tiered European parliament.

Toward year’s end, the EU budget for the period 2014–20 became a point of discussion. Could the EU, at such a time, demand more money from its members? The European Commission—the EU’s executive, based in Brussels—argued for a budget increase of 5%, to €1.03 trillion (about $1.3 trillion). It based its case for an increase on the fact that member states were demanding that the EU do more to boost growth and it therefore needed more funds to do so. In some member states—including the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands—there was strong resistance. British Prime Minister David Cameron argued for a budget that would increase only with the rate of inflation, a plan that the Germans initially supported. Poorer EU countries such as Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, which received more from the EU than they contributed, backed the Commission’s position. Cameron’s stance was made more difficult when members of his own party rebelled to defeat the proposed budget in a nonbinding parliamentary vote. The move was seen as indicative of a growing skepticism in the U.K. about the benefits of EU membership.

The year came to an end with antiausterity protests across Europe in November and two inconclusive summits in December. The first failed to reach a deal on the future size of the budget, and the second put off decisions on the stated aim of closer fiscal and economic integration for countries in the euro zone until the following June. The EU had navigated a tough year with a Nobel Prize and the euro still intact, but the process of putting it on a new, more stable course for the future was only just getting under way.


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