Financial crisis brings calls for United Europe!

Last week in Berlin, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called for the creation of a “United States of Europe… to avoid future economic crises,” declaring “we will have to give up national sovereignty” to a common government (Reuters.com, September 4, 2011).  This conviction is being voiced around the world.

In Paris, former head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet stated the European project was “incomplete” and the EU required a “federal government with a federal finance minister” (euobserver.com, September 6, 2011).  In Australia, the head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, observed that dealing with the European debt crisis will demand “more integration at least for the euro area” (euobserver.com, September 7, 2011).  These statements echo what former German defense minister Joschka Fischer told the European Parliament, that a “United States of Europe is the only way to preserve European influence in the world” and that “future integration steps need a political union” (euobserver.com, January 12, 2011).

In New York, an official with Citigroup, the largest financial services firm in the world, said that “the eurozone is likely to fall apart unless the European Union’s member states fuse both on the fiscal and political level” (euobserver.com, April 21, 2010).  A former Belgian prime minister has written that a federal EU is “the only option” and might consist of a core of the 12 eurozone states using the prestigious title “United States of Europe” surrounded by other more loosely integrated states (euobesrver.com, December 1, 2005).  Scholars have noted that past crises have been the impetus for spurts of European integration; the current debt crisis offers another opportunity for further integration.

In light of these developments, it should be remembered that Bible prophecies have long foretold that a short-lived (3½  years) “beast” power of 10 kings (leaders or nations) would emerge in Europe just before the return of Jesus Christ (Daniel 2 and 7; Revelation 17)—and that its sudden appearance would surprise the world (Revelation 13:3).  We need to watch and not be surprised!