Summary
More than a decade after the 2008 financial crisis, the European Union is still stagnating politically.
The main reason that Europe remains at an impasse is Germany. For years after 2008, when the EU was confronting slow growth and mounting economic crises, Germany insisted that it could not move the European project forward alone, and that it would have to wait for France.
In the same month that Germany voted, Macron delivered an impressive speech at the Sorbonne, in which he proposed specific reforms to stabilize the eurozone, create a common border-protection system, and establish a joint European defense initiative. At the time, Macron's proposals received an icy response in Germany; seven months later, Germany still hasn't offered any of its own.
The United States under President Donald Trump has questioned its transatlantic security guarantee and now is undermining the global trade system upon which Europe – and particularly Germany – has relied since the '50s.
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