The bold assumption informing the Treaty of Maastricht was that Europe no longer needed national boundaries or even national currencies. This led to a steady and seemingly irreversible erosion of national sovereignty, but not to the disappearance of nations and their differences. This development ended up privileging the very country in Europe that has made its commitment to democracy and the Rechtsstaat its reason of the state: Germany. Europe’s economic powerhouse, Germany, was bound to become even more powerful in a single currency area that prevented its less efficient partners from regaining competitiveness through devaluation of their own currencies. What is more, in the absence of institutions, processes and rules that would be up to the task of dealing with the crisis, it is the German government that is calling the shots. The fact that its ultimate aim is a German-style Rechtsstaat to be constructed across Europe as well as within each participating member state adds another layer of irony, but does not make that aim any more realistic, desirable, or viable. On the contrary, European citizens will reject German solutions to their problems, because they will perceive them as foreign impositions.
