EU Not a Political Union

Contagion could fracture the eurozone: "A fourth observation - again fairly obvious - is that the eurozone remains a hybrid. It is a monetary union but not a political union, and so countries such as Ireland have had to go it alone in bailing out struggling banks. There is a clear distinction between the US, where the government has financial clout across all 50 states, and the EU. Calling a global summit is not the same as actually doing something, and Angela Merkel has made clear that Germany will not bail out dodgy banks in other EU countries. The European Investment Bank is releasing £12bn of emergency aid to small businesses, but given the EU's size and the scale of the crisis, that is chicken-feed."