BY NAOMI CRAINE
The European Union (EU) formally approved 11 members of the European monetary union (EMU) and projected single currency, the euro, at a meeting in Brussels on May 3. The meeting was marked by what German chancellor Helmut Kohl described as a "dogfight" between French and German officials over who would head the new European Central Bank. The incident was a further indication that the euro, which is intended by the participating bourgeoisies as an economic bloc against their U.S. and Japanese rivals, will be a weak currency, not a strong one, and will intensify the conflicts among the European imperialist powers.

The rulers of most EU member states have signed on to the plan. The governments of Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are voluntarily staying out of the monetary union at this point. The EU ruled that the Greek government, which wants to participate, has not met the criteria for the euro. These criteria - which include target debt limits and inflation rates - are being used by the various EU governments as justification for intensified job cuts and attacks on social entitlements at a time when unemployment is in double digits across much of the continent.

Bonn and 13 other EU members backed the candidacy of Wim Duisenberg from the Netherlands. But six months ago Paris nominated Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the Bank of France, for the post. At the Brussels meeting, Chirac demanded that the eight-year term be split between the two, with a written commitment that Duisenberg would step down in favor of Trichet in 2002. The compromise was a public, verbal declaration by Duisenberg that he intends to "voluntarily" resign at an unspecified time that year. "I feel satisfied," declared Chirac. "It doesn't bother me that France gained an advantage."

European Parliament president José María Gil-Robles of Spain commented May 3, "This is not good at all for the European Central Bank to begin like that. Let us hope that a baby born in such bad form can recover and become stronger."

This was echoed a few days later by Hans Tietmeyer, the head of the German central bank. "Not everything that happened last weekend in Brussels contributed to the necessary expectation that the euro will be a really supranational and depoliticized currency," he stated.

In a May 6 column headlined, "Europe: The Artificial Nation," U.S. ultrarightist Patrick Buchanan, who uses his column to campaign for "America First" protectionism, trashed the EMU, describing it as "tied together by bureaucracy and greed" and "a common resentment of America's hegemony." Shedding crocodile tears that "across Europe, workers are being sacrificed," Buchanan ended with a jab, "As this new Europe is a marriage of convenience...not a marriage of love, it will end in a rancorous and perhaps violent divorce - to which we should all look forward."  
 
 
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