OpEd: Europe 09-06-15

The commentators 09-06-15

...on Europe

Germany’s tough approach is based on a realistic assessment of how hard it will be to get reforms through a 28-member EU — as well as a profound aversion to rolling back the process of EU integration. But it is also an alarming commentary on Europe’s inability to respond to changed circumstances, whether it is a 25 per cent shrinkage in the Greek economy, or the unanticipated migration of millions of people across the EU. That failure to be flexible about change is dangerous. A Europe that cannot bend is much more likely to break.
- Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

For the Greeks, the final deadline for clinching a deal with the Europeans has always been June 30 — when the current bailout extension expires. Then again, they may be able to shunt this off into the future again but at some point the country will need the extra money to pay its bills or will have to default. My hunch is that there will be a compromise and that Greece will find some way of staying in the euro — however foolish that might be in the long run.
- Ed Conway, The Times

David Cameron has disclosed his true hand. His instinct, and almost certainly his intention, is to insist that ministers back whatever settlement he manages to negotiate. Such an outcome would be intolerably autocratic, illiberal and divisive. Moreover, it amounts to a potentially disastrously negative approach to negotiations
- Stephen Glover, Daily Mail

If David Cameron believes that Britain is better off in the EU even under the current terms of membership it is not what he has been telling us for the past five years. He had given the impression that if he doesn’t get his way on reforming the EU then he would recommend to the country that Britain leaves. A great number of people now feel cheated.
- Ross Clark, Daily Express

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This wasn't a story about journalists and celebs whose misfortunes no one really cares about, it was about a landmark ruling on privacy, about the comeuppance of an organisation that had repeatedly denied that it had anything to do with phone-hacking until it was dragged, kicking and screaming, into court.
Too embarrassed to look in the mirror?

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There are many Tories, including Ministers, who will wish to leave the EU come what may because what matters most to them is not on offer: the restoration of Britain’s status as a fully independent nation. Most of the 50 or so Tory MPs who have joined a new organisation called Conservatives for Britain probably fall into that category
- Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph

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