When the EU leaders meet today they will have a lot to do. Things are not going well. Tsipras has been re-elected in Greece by a wider than expected margin (many in the Euro group hoped for his defeat) which ensures a bumpy ride ahead for the Eurogroup finance ministers. Greece, with its ally the IMF, will demand and have to get debt relief. Volkswagen, a brand synonymous with quality and fair dealing, a metaphor for post war Germany itself, has been found to be under the thumb of con men who have organised an emissions fraud on a grand and calculating scale which has caused both dismay and disbelief. The cost will not be the four billion euros set aside to reprogramme the cars and do a bit of PR. It will be nearer thirty billion, when account is taken of fines and law suits in the US alone. This is not a design fault or a quality control issue. This is planned designer fraud. Volkswagen is the EU’s largest manufacturer.
Then there is the migrant crisis. Yesterday the EU foreign ministers met and quarrelled. Finally they agreed with four against and one abstention to share a compulsory quota of 160,000 migrants. This is Noddy Land politics. Already this year 500,000 have entered Europe by sea alone. The populations of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Libya, as well as Eritrea and Sudan are on the move, in flight from the chaos of their homelands. There is no point in rehearsing why this unprecedented diaspora is happening, simply that it is. And there has to be a coordinated emergency plan to cope. Sharing out 160,000 souls is good but will hardly make any difference. The test is to think big and act bigger. Thus far it is a test Europe is failing. Meanwhile the numbers surge on forward overwhelming even those keen to welcome them. Soon the problem will not just be migrants. It will be Europe itself.