European Student Think Tank

The fin­an­cial mar­kets have been sub­ject to con­sid­er­able cri­ti­cism in the last weeks; ana­lysts are wor­ried that fin­an­cial con­sid­er­a­tions will dic­tate decisions that should be taken via a demo­cratic pro­cess. By ana­lyz­ing the reas­ons and the effects of the cri­ti­cized beha­vior the con­clu­sion must be drawn that Europe in the long term should be grate­ful for the present warn­ings of the market.

In the tur­moil of the European fin­an­cial crisis, the pro­ject of European integ­ra­tion seems to have lost its appeal­ing attract­ive­ness. Our politi­cians are not con­sidered to be the lead­ers Europe needs. The European Court of Justice how­ever con­tin­ues to stress the import­ance of the European pro­ject and its approach towards Europe and its import­ance provides some use­ful les­sons for our politi­cians in order to become true leaders.

The vic­tory of the rebel forces in Libya is often con­ceived as not only their vic­tory, but as a vic­tory of European dip­lomacy as well. Though this might be true for the rela­tions between Europe and the United States, it is doubt­ful whether it is the case for the rela­tions with the Arab world as well. The eco­nomic and polit­ical real­ity must lead to the con­clu­sion that the effects might not be as last­ing as one would hope.