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Will the European Union make it? The question would have sounded strange not long ago. Now even the project’s greatest cheerlead

admin2017-12-11  70
问题    Will the European Union make it? The question would have sounded strange not long ago. Now even the project’s greatest cheerleaders talk of a continent facing a "Bermuda triangle" of debt, population decline and lower growth.
   As well as those chronic problems, the EU face an acute crisis in its economic core, the 16 countries that use the single currency. Markets have lost faith that the euro zone’ s economies, weaker or stronger, will one day converge thanks to the discipline of sharing a single currency, which denies uncompetitive members the quick fix of devaluation.
   Yet the debate about how to save Europe’ s single currency from disintegration is stuck. It is stuck because the euro zone’s dominant powers, France and Germany, agree on the need for greater harmonisation within the euro zone, but disagree about what to harmonise.
   Germany thinks the euro must be saved by stricter rules on borrow spending and competitiveness, barked by quasi-automatic sanctions for governments that do not obey. These might include threats to freeze EU funds for poorer regions and EU mega-projects, and even the suspension of a country’s voting rights in EU ministerial councils. It insists that economic co-ordination should involve all 27 members of the EU club, among whom there is a small majority for free-market liberalism and economic rigour; in the inner core alone, Germany fears, a small majority favour French interference.
   A "southern" camp headed by French wants something different: "European economic government" within an inner core of euro-zone members. Translated, that means politicians intervening in monetary policy and a system of redistribution from richer to poorer members, via cheaper borrowing for governments through common Eurobonds or complete fiscal transfers. Finally, figures close to the France government have murmured, euro-zone members should agree to some fiscal and social harmonisation: e.g., curbing competition in corporate-tax rates or labour costs.
   It is too soon to write off the EU. It remains the world’ s largest trading block. At its best, the European project is remarkably liberal: built around a single market of 27 rich and poor countries, its internal borders are far more open to goods, capital and labour than any comparable trading area. It is an ambitious attempt to blunt the sharpest edges of globalization, and make capitalism benign.
The debate over the EU’ s single currency is stuck because the dominant powers
选项 A、are competing for the leading position.
B、are busy handling their own crises.
C、fail to reach an agreement on harmonisation.
D、disagree on the steps towards disintegration.
答案C
解析 细节题。题干问题是欧盟单一货币的争论僵持不下的原因。A项“他们争夺领导地位”该 观点在文中没有出现；B项“忙于处理他们自己的危机”这种说法在文中也没有根据。而D项 “对于解体的步骤意见不一致”，文中也没有涉及。文章第三段很清楚地表明C项“未能就和谐 化达成共识”与文章意思一致，为正确答案。
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