The Telegraph, December 4, Barney Reynolds
The European Commission is making much of a wish for “strategic autonomy” in financial services, arguing that it needs to find ways to pull financial business from the UK into the EU after Brexit.
The main reason for the EU’s strong push for business might not readily be apparent to all. It is not just a matter of jobs.
Underlying the push is a wish to be in a position to control and modify global financial regulatory standards to relieve market pressures on the highly fragile – and dangerous – euro project. However, the idea is a reckless one and the consequences of such an approach, were the EU to succeed, could be calamitous for the world economy.
The reason for this arises from the structure of the eurozone. EU law splits eurozone sovereignty between the member states, who are in charge for fiscal purposes, and the European Central Bank, which governs monetary matters. As a result, neither is sovereign.
Unlike true sovereigns, such as the UK or US, eurozone member states cannot require the ECB to print more money to repay debts. So the only monies they can count on are those arising from their tax base.
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