Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Part I The economics of the European Union
- Part II The economies of Europe
- 12 Germany: problems with reunification
- 13 France: problems with assimilation
- 14 The United Kingdom: after Thatcher, what next?
- 15 Italy: political reform versus economic reform
- 16 The small open countries: free trade or customs union?
- 17 The Scandinavian union: or separate ways?
- 18 The latecomers: lessons in preparation
- 19 The newcomers: building institutions
- 20 The future members: customs union as substitute or stage one for the EU
- Suggestions for further reading
- Index
12 - Germany: problems with reunification
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Part I The economics of the European Union
- Part II The economies of Europe
- 12 Germany: problems with reunification
- 13 France: problems with assimilation
- 14 The United Kingdom: after Thatcher, what next?
- 15 Italy: political reform versus economic reform
- 16 The small open countries: free trade or customs union?
- 17 The Scandinavian union: or separate ways?
- 18 The latecomers: lessons in preparation
- 19 The newcomers: building institutions
- 20 The future members: customs union as substitute or stage one for the EU
- Suggestions for further reading
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Sixteen years after the reunification of West Germany with East Germany, in 1990, Germany's economic problems and policies continue to weigh on the future of the European Union and the other economies of Europe. Its size and relative weight within the EU increased sharply and permanently after reunification, but it has not yet been able to come to grips with the twin challenges of incorporating the East German economy while restructuring an economic system that remains the envy of the rest of Europe. Germany's twin problems are more difficult to solve because of the way reunification was carried out. After the narrow election of Angela Merkel as Chancellor in the elections of 2005, and the compromises she needed to form a new government, it is still not clear that the problems can be solved.
The former Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, lost the election he called in order to gain legitimacy for the labor market reforms he had initiated at the beginning of 2005 – the Hartz IV program. Developed by a 2002 commission headed by Peter Hartz, Volkswagen's personnel director, the various reforms proposed in successive stages of Hartz I, II, III, and IV merely tried to reduce gradually some of the most obvious rigidities of the German labor market while adopting new rules that had worked well in other countries.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Economics of Europe and the European Union , pp. 201 - 229Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007