Now everyone believes in the EU

François Hollande has put together a government of politicians rather than of specialists: so much so, that any minister who does not win in his constituency in France’s legislative elections in June will be forced to step down from his post. Headed by the prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, who like Hollande has no previous experience of ministerial power, the government has begun with a new ethical code, lowering ministerial salaries by 30 percent, respecting the promised principle of gender parity, and with a make-up of real political heavyweights, with the exception of the now-relegated Martine Aubry.

There is, indeed, a certain irony in the fact that the new foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, and his number two in EU matters, Bernard Cazeneuve, were the leading defenders, within the Socialist ranks, of the “no” vote that in the 2005 referendum sank the European Constitution.

But now everyone believes in the EU: in another sort of EU, as was underlined on Thursday by the new economy minister, Pierre Moscovici. In a double sense: with the demand for a growth agenda as a condition for ratification of the Fiscal Pact, and with the promise that, while the Franco-German axis will remain central, there will be a return to a Union in which all the members play a role and the EU institutions have the last word. That is, moving away from the idea of a Franco-German “directorate.”

On the brink of the precipice of a fragmentation within the euro zone, and with very weak economic growth, the EU’s policy is evolving rapidly. On Thursday a voice from outside the euro zone and the Fiscal Pact, the British Prime Minister David Cameron, issued a serious warning against any such breakdown, calling for more intervention from the European Central Bank (ECB), and more integration: for the other member states, and to defend the interests of London’s City and the growth possibilities of the British economy itself.

Speaking from Aix-la-Chapelle, Charlemagne’s ancient capital near the German border with the Benelux countries, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, came out in favor of a common financial policy and a central government in the EU, with the president to be elected by Europe-wide general suffrage. It is not a plan for tomorrow, but for the day after. If there is still time.

Today the urgent issue is to save the euro. Everyone understands this, including non-Europeans, and it will predictably be the central subject of the round of debates that began on Friday afternoon at the G-8 meeting in Camp David near Washington.

Coming after his hectic visit to Berlin, this is the first multilateral summit meeting for the new president of the French Republic, a Socialist, who has promised commitment both to austerity and to growth on the European scale, because, as Moscovici said, “public debt is an enemy” for France — but nobody can really take meaningful action on their own anymore.