Germany and the European Union
By: Geraldine Gonzalez de la Vega
In recent days, the international press has criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, by the harshness of their stance on the economic crisis in Greece. It has been said from selfish to nerd, editorials in American media, British, English Noles, French and even Germans, Angela Merkel called to be in solidarity with the Greeks and leave the stubborn and nationalism aside. Lluís Bassets journalist for El Pais, published in his blog Del Pin the Elephant an entry where German Chancellor criticizes its lack of European solidarity, called "Merkel absorbed" and reminds him that their ancestors participated with great commitment in building European Union monetary union. Strikes me now is a pretext not to follow Merkel Adenauer and Kohl (flagship foreign ministers Merkel's own party), as if Merkel's position out of sheer stupidity, as if the foreign ministers more years at the German government had been looking for good Samaritans who realize a romantic ideal, to unite Europe's sake.
The reality is that Merkel follows in the footsteps of both, and has shown in his nearly five years of government. In the case of the Greek crisis, it became clear that it is so important for Europe that is not willing to take short term and popular measures, his proposal, which eventually was accepted in Brussels, was yes, to help Greece, but in the European legal framework and a vision based on long-term to prevent members of the monetary union again incurring faults that Greece committed. Germany fled his responsibility as a member of the Union, simply made clear that it is unfair that one of the members break the dishes and then all will require Germany to pay them, out of solidarity.
With regard to the "European line of ancestors", it is worth remembering why all the foreign ministers of the divided Germany became obsessed with the idea of \u200b\u200bEurope, and it is their motives were not purely European, but rather purely German:
During the Cold War, both German foreign policy, and international politics were dominated by the so-called question on Berlin , one which forms part of the question for Germany , ie, reunification and extension its territory. All German chancellors until 1990, from Konrad Adenauer to Helmut Kohl, were aimed at reuniting the two Germanys, not only as a matter of personal or party politics, but as a fundamental obligation. The same German Basic Law was established as the primary objective, we see clearly in its provisional character - hence the German Constitution was not called, but fundamental law and in the Preamble, where he established until 1989 German reunification as a fundamental purpose, a procedure that was governed by Article 23. This article was the basis for reunification under the Constitution of both States and was later modified to accommodate the rules for the relationship of the German Federal Republic with the European Union.
It follows that the traces of German foreign policy of the FRG were always directed towards the weakening of the RDA to "recover" what could be achieved only by anchoring itself to the West. A strong Europe and a united NATO would eventually weaken the Warsaw Pact.
Berlin The question was from 1945 to 1989, 5 critical moments: At the Yalta and Potsdam conferences for the division of territory between the four partners, in the introduction of economic reform and the German mark the west and the blockade of West Berlin by the Soviets, in Khrushchev's ultimatum, in the construction of the wall and the subsequent strained relations over the years, in 1971 when signing the Agreement of the four powers over Berlin in establishing the foundations of the legal status of the divided state and begins the period of Détente, the relationship with West Berlin with West Germany and access to it, and in 1989 with the Berlin Wall and the beginning of "change" or "Die Wende."
An analysis of the Belgian daily Le Soir, published on August 8, 1961, addressed the issue and criticized the parties for not seeing beyond their own interests and maintenance the status quo that suits each party. In addition, as noted in Le Soir, the question was not only about Berlin's reunification German, but the European status quo. "If the RFA integrate the GDR into its territory, then the problem of borders could be moved to Poland." The spirit of international politics, supported by the West Germans, according to Le Soir, would be "Paris defends in Berlin." Le Soir article analyzed the situation from both sides: the Soviets would be advantageous to sign the peace treaty with the GDR, as de facto recognize this state, forcing the government of Germany and the Allies to negotiate with them roads, overwhelming the political protest in Bonn and the GDR would give the right to negotiate its borders. On the side of Adenauer, said Le Soir, the view is not very different. Seeks to revise the status quo in Berlin after the war, but in the opposite direction. Adenauer said the federal government rejects any proposal by the German problem on the basis of maintaining the status quo of post-war, which refuses to recognize and intends to review.
Question about Berlin as shown by Le Soir, contained several aspects and is concentrated in a city the chess game of the two empires that divided the world.
Thus, understanding the problem of Berlin between 1949 and 1990 is to understand the context within which foreign policy was moving Germany (FRG). Question about Berlin can be divided into five dimensions: international law, the national dimension, the diplomatic, geopolitical and humanitarian. The approach to all matters relating to Berlin, and its division into East and West Berlin, had to take into consideration these five dimensions, as the city became the Board "Coach" of world powers and the letter that chancellors Adenauer, Erhard, Kiesinger, Brandt, Schmidt and Kohl played poker to win the German unit.
The policy orientation towards the West and Europe Adenauer was farm in its conviction to achieve reunification. For him the German interests and European interests were identical. It was mutual, without Germany there would be no united Europe without it, liberty and security of Germany would not be guaranteed. In a 1948 speech, he mentioned that are identical to Germany's rescue the rescue of Europe. Adenauer's European policy was a means to ensure safety, equality and reunification and depended on the other side of safety and freedom of the states of Western Europe and its unity. Adenauer saw it as a sequence of interest, this point was key to understanding its policy for Germany.
In a speech before the board of the CDU (his party) in 1958, said "As we see, and we must be very clear, it's totally unrealistic to believe that the issue of reunification of Germany can be solved without the disappearance of the tensions in the world. "reunification To Adenauer was a vital issue for Europe," is necessary integrity of Germany to place a dam against the Soviets, "he thought. It is known Franco-German reconciliation and the close relationship he had with de Gaulle Adenauer. It is precisely in the postwar period, and because the French occupation in the Rhine-Rur that start to walk the European Coal and Steel Community and the Nuclear (Euratom), embryos European Economic Community (CEE).
Between 1969 and 1982 the German question, and thus the foreign policy of the FRG, underwent a change with the new social-liberal government, first of Willy Brandt, and after Hemlut Schmidt. Brandt's arrival gave great relief to the enormous tension that had been created between the two blocs, and specifically between the two Germanys. The style of Adenauer and his two successors eventually suffocate the Germans, who after 20 us decide to give an opportunity to SPD. Brandt's new policy of pragmatic court, known as "Ostpolitik" left the Hallstein doctrine of Adenauer, basically ignoring the GDR, and was founded on the idea developed by his adviser Egon Bahr of "small small steps "which gave a better result in their involvement with the RDA and earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1971. By 1972, they signed a basic treaty between the two Germanys and that was the cornerstone of their relationship well into the eighties. Brandt, also faithful to the German approach to the West, maintained close relations with Georges Pompidou and Richard Nixon. Helmut Schmidt, who succeeded him after his resignation, kept the mood-Atlantic and founded, along with Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the European Council and promoted the creation of European Development Fund Regional and European Monetary System.
Helmut Schmidt in 1982 was removed by a constructive vote of no confidence for his coalition partner, the FDP led by Hans-Dietrich Genscher, took away the trust and negotiated a change of government with Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union. October 1982 that West Germany began a new government that would last 16 to dren and during which, it would make the dream of the previous five chancellors: German reunification.
Helmut Kohl continued the "Ostpolitik" and continued to haunt the friendship with France, first with Giscard d'Estaing, who confesses Kohl, did not like him very well, and then his successor, François Mitterrand, Kohl who took great personal friend. Kohl, faithful to the principle of Adenauer, cultivated the Euro-Atlantic relations, strengthened Europe and NATO, but also sought a rapprochement with Erich Honecker, Chairman of the RDA since 1976. Kohl in his memoirs that Honecker met on several occasions, as in the initial us his government had to attend several funerals in Moscow and the USSR lost 3 general secretaries of the CPSU until the appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. In these meetings Helmut Kohl tried through the common talk him see Honecker were much closer than those two, that Andropov or Chernenko, "both were Germans!"
Between 1983 and 1989, the year communism implode Europe, the Kohl government was dedicated to financially supporting the failed policy of the GDR. Today we know that loans were DEM and the RDA sold to Germany to be political prisoners lacked the money to finance its security system "from cradle to grave." Kohl and Honecker also met mutual visits by the two leaders were made between 1983 and 1987. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev is elected general secretary and begins to introduce the reforms that we are all familiar with Russian names: Perestroika and Glasnost. And it was the transparency and the restructuring that helped pull the foundations of those old bureaucratic apparatus.
Helmut Kohl, with one foot firmly anchored in the West, pulled the torn and exhausted RDA towards constitutional and democratic Germany. In 1989 the Berlin Wall finally fell, and Kohl, Mitterrand and backed by George Bush Sr., but not Margaret Thatcher paved the way for rapid integration of the GDR to the FRG that I would not have been possible without the foundation of Union European jobs during his administration were: Helmut Kohl urged the European Monetary Union and the transformation of the European Community (economic) in political union we know today as the European Union, which are specified in the Maastricht Treaty of 1993. Kohl's policy from the outset sought to reconcile the practical issues of German-German relationship, but always very clear that the primary objective would be the premise for the reunification of the Basic Law. Overall Kohl policy was characterized by the obstinacy of Adenauer's the opening of the German question and the continuity of the lines drawn by Brandt and Schmidt.
Hemlut Kohl was even to those who touched the entry into force of the so-called dual-track decision of NATO to establish missiles on German territory that would ensure mutual destruction of both blocks, which had to propose and negotiate his predecessor, Helmut Schmidt. The unpopular decision was based on the belief that Schmidt would be the only way to rescue Germany from its geopolitical position and reposition it in the West. Again, the same idea, to the extent that the German Federal Republic is important for the West, can achieve the integration of the Democratic Republic of the constitutional and democratic system social market economy.
With the reunification, Kohl signed with the former GDR almost two-four treated with the Allies, the USSR, France, Britain and the United States to recover the sovereignty of its territory. Admitted to NATO and as a single Germany, and the process of integration of the GDR to Germany also meant admission to the rules of the European Economic Union.
Europe at the end of the day served to Germany, as he has served for more than 20 countries that joined gradually Union of six since the early seventies. The application, and then membership, look like a rope that serves the countries of Europe to go up the steep peak of the consolidation of democracy, respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights and the establishment of rules social market economy.
The EU-27 is a group of good Samaritans who have come together to be good friends and help in good times and bad. Is a union of convenience. That's not bad. All members agree that the 27 (and the candidates lining up to join) remain the three pillars (political, economic and right) which ensure the stability of Europe. No one agreed that when a member breaks the rules and go into crisis, others jump to help thinking "today for you tomorrow for me." After all, the same principles that apply to a company for compliance and sanctions, applied between these nations. If between citizens do not expect to condone and help with public money that has lost his property playing poker, "why would the Germans, who have complied with the rules, to help selflessly and unconditionally the Greeks, who do not have met ?
Angela Merkel is skipping the pro-European tradition of postwar Germany, it is simply safeguarding the rule of law and the interests of the members who do comply and that means the receipt of Europe . For Germany is equally clear that Europe's stability is the stability of Germany, and vice versa. Certainly acted as Helmut Kohl.
Colophon:
Herzlichen Glückwunsch! It is said to congratulate someone, and that is that last weekend celebrated his birthday Helmut Kohl dren 80, Richard von Wiezsäcker, former Federal President from 1984 to 1994, held next week his birthday dren 90, and Angela Merkel is celebrating its tenth anniversary as president of his party, the CDU (Christian Democratic Union).
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