Can the dream of an economically united Europe with a single currency survive the extravagance of the past decade and the mountains of debt strangling key countries in the union? For more than two years Europe has teetered on the edge of an economic precipice. If there is a meltdown, the shockwaves will be felt across the globe and Australia will not escape.
How exactly did Europe get itself into the current financial mess? Talking to historians, economists and politicians, BBC business editor Robert Peston takes a long view of the euro - from Churchill's vision of a United States of Europe, to the push by former French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to create a single currency. He explains the forces that drove economic unification and explains the fundamental flaws in a system that had economic unity with limited political integration.
This lack of political unity played a major role in the creation of the economic boom and bust cycle inside Greece, Portugal and Ireland. The program also makes it clear that some countries lied about their financial position in the lead up to unification.
Meeting a property developer in Ireland, a taxi driver in Rome and a German manufacturing worker, the film illustrates the countries' vastly different attitudes to spending and saving. It also shows the high cost being paid by European workers today for the dream of monetary union - and how close Europe came to a complete banking meltdown late last year. The cost of saving the euro may be high, but the alternative could be a return to the economic mayhem of the 1930s. |
