Monti: Eurozone crisis causing resentment

Italy's prime minister has warned that the eurozone's debt crisis has created resentment amid the European nations, which could ultimately trigger a breakup of the wider European Union. Mario Monti told German news magazine Der Spiegel there is a front line between northern and southern Europe, with each holding prejudices against the other. However, Monti drew criticism from other European politicians for calling for European governments to have more “freedom” from their parliaments in their decision-making.

“This idea of having a freer government from parliamentary check is really dangerous, particularly in light of what is happening in terms of popular support for the area of Europe,” said Alberto Mingardi, the Director General of the Milan-based economics think-tank Istituto Bruno Leoni. “People have a growing perception of the European Union as a technocratic, elitist body that doesn’t have any strong democratic checks and balance.”

Mingardi told Vatican Radio Monti chose an unfortunate phrase to express a real issue facing European governments.

“What I think he wanted to say was that governments need to act fast, because global finance, the markets… act fast. So you need intervention, you need decision making at a proper speed,” he explained. “Nonetheless, the problem with this ‘proper speed’ is that governments may infringe on the constitutional rights of their own parliament, but also they will infringe upon the very essence of rules that keep together both the nation-state and the European Union.”

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Alberto Mingardi: