Just a few footnotes to the very pessimistic comment from Timothy Garton Ash (Europe is being torn apart, 9 March): 1) German wages are rising. 2) German consumption is rising strongly. 3) German overall employment is rising, giving jobs to Spaniards, Greeks and others. 4) Tourism to eurozone countries and especially to Greece, is expected to rise again this year. 5) The German government has announced additional investment in the coming years. 6) German imports and exports to the eurozone countries are in balance at +€400bn in 2013 and 2014. 7) The EU, especially through the structural funds, is already redistributing wealth across the EU. 8) The Greeks have made painful cuts in spending. But they have not yet tried to reform their procedures sufficiently. Take export funding for example: I have recently read that there are massive absurdities in the procedures, leading to reduced exports of Greek products.
Garton Ash is certainly right about the political bit. But only in the long run.
Hans Mommsen
Trier, Germany
• Angela Merkel is not, as Natalie Nougayrède suggests (7 March), the commanding figure holding Europe together, but the divisive figure responsible for the centrifugal forces that threaten European unity. Through imposing on Europe a German-type austerity programme, she has caused the immiseration of the European peoples which has undermined their confidence in their governments and the European project. The rise of Syriza in Greece was not a threat to the eurozone but a lifeline offering it a different route out of the current crisis. Does nobody in Berlin realise that Merkel’s austerity programme is the best recruiting agent for the anti-eurozone and anti-Europe parties?
Derrick Joad
Leeds
