Europe needs a new deal that trades less austerity for more structural reform. It can be done without costing Germany a euro cent.
The contours of this shift are starting to emerge, with Spain leading the way. To persuade the European Commission to relax its budget deficit targets for 2014 to 2016, the government of Mariano Rajoy this week set out plans to overhaul pension systems and reform labor markets, service sectors and fiscal management.
Officials in Brussels are likely to be receptive to these ideas, because they see that current policies risk tearing apart the European Union. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned this week that politically Europe is pushing against the limits of austerity.