SHOCKER Top European Union Economist: The EU is Falling Apart

Fredrik Erixon

A top insider has bailed on the notion that the European Union can be saved as a grand ambitious project.

Fredrik Erixon, who was voted one of the most influential economists in Europe, has warned Angela Merkel and  Brussels leaders that they cannot stop the end of the European project.

This is a major defection from the pro-EU front.

Erixon  is a major player. He was educated at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. He started his career as an economist in the Prime Minister's Office in Sweden and later worked as an economist at the World Bank and for JP Morgan. He was also an Adviser to the British government. He is now telling his insider colleagues that the attempt at a unified European Union has failed.

Speaking at an economic conference, The Express reports, Erixon declared that "the era of an ever-closer union has ended".

He said that
the hope the election of Emmanuel Macron ended the  attack on the EU is misguided:

Despite the victories of the Dutch Prime Minister and Emmanuel Macron, as much as I like to share their positive view about European cooperation and empowering the EU with more authority, I think the era of an ever-closer union has ended.

The notion of the ever-closer union has been very, very strong for more than 60 years, but it has died.

It didn’t end with Brexit nor did it end with Trump’s skepticism about the EU.

It ended far earlier than that - 15 years ago when France and the Netherlands voted against the constitutional treaty.

This was an early warning about declining support for anything that suggested a deeper integration.

Erixon added:

The economic growth premium of European integration has also weakened.

This was a core selling point for a long time.

It was a promise there if you join the EU, you’re going to be better off, your economy will become better with deeper integration.

Economic growth is not just poor [now] at an EU level, but across individual level too, across all countries.

In 1990s, at least some countries were growing at a high level - but now it is poor everywhere.

 Erizon, who founded the European Centre for International Political Economy, said Europe will soon be reduced to a mere transaction-based union. He concluded:

The EU has moved into a political culture that is purely transactional.

We will see much less of the visionary generosity that guided the EU in the past, in the expansion of the EU to Eastern countries.

The ambitious political culture of the European project has died.

-RW