I don't see the problem to be honest. We (I live in the Netherlands) are paying a lot of money to help them out, which is okay. But yeah we're asking the inhabitants of Cyprus for a sacrifice too. The 10% tax is a very crude way to implement this, but dire times need dire actions.
I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that this sort of action could lead to pan-european war in the next decade.
It radically undermines trust in the banking system, in the social contract, and in democratic government. If you undermine the social contract and rule by fiat, as the EU has in Greece and Cyprus, it leads to extremism, break down of social order, an ever more polarised political situation, and ultimately revolution and/or dictatorship (see France late 1780s, Russia 1900-1917, Germany 1920-30s). That's not a Europe I want to see and this can happen quite quickly even in an apparently stable society when the foundations are weakened progressively.
The EU was founded to avoid precisely this sort of escalation of conflict and blaming of others by sharing the wealth of nations and promoting ever closer union. They could easily afford to support Cyprus through these hard times against the banks, in fact they're a big enough trading block to simply default wholesale against their creditors and start again, but they have chosen instead the road of muddy compromise, where they end up defaulting piecemeal (as in Greece, which effectively defaulted), but by stealth and in secret and with draconian conditions attached, and which hurts the poorer people of the EU disproportionately by forcing through massive cuts which don't actually solve the problem. Is Greece doing better than Iceland at the moment, is the austerity working? How will paying this bill help Cyprus?
They're undermining trust in the entire EU and EUR project, and there may come a time when governments are overthrown and countries leave the union because of it, and even (and I sincerely hope not) where countries go to war over it. It's fascinating and a little sad to see the same mistakes being made all over again.
> If you undermine the social contract and rule by fiat, as the EU has in Greece and Cyprus, it leads to extremism, break down of social order, an ever more polarised political situation, and ultimately revolution and/or dictatorship
Mostly unrelated and that kid was really stupid, but just the other day a 20-year old Greek footballer used the Nazi salute after scoring a goal for his team (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21822165). Like I said, that kid is beyond stupid, but I think it shows that some sort of extremism (right-wing, left-wing) is slowly making its way onto the front scene.
> If you undermine the social contract and rule by fiat, as the EU has in Greece and Cyprus, it leads to extremism, break down of social order, an ever more polarised political situation, and ultimately revolution and/or dictatorship (see France late 1780s, Russia 1900-1917, Germany 1920-30s).
Hopefully irrelevant factoid: Cyprus is the 6th country in the world in number of guns per capita [1].
I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that this sort of action could lead to pan-european war in the next decade.
It radically undermines trust in the banking system, in the social contract, and in democratic government. If you undermine the social contract and rule by fiat, as the EU has in Greece and Cyprus, it leads to extremism, break down of social order, an ever more polarised political situation, and ultimately revolution and/or dictatorship (see France late 1780s, Russia 1900-1917, Germany 1920-30s). That's not a Europe I want to see and this can happen quite quickly even in an apparently stable society when the foundations are weakened progressively.
The EU was founded to avoid precisely this sort of escalation of conflict and blaming of others by sharing the wealth of nations and promoting ever closer union. They could easily afford to support Cyprus through these hard times against the banks, in fact they're a big enough trading block to simply default wholesale against their creditors and start again, but they have chosen instead the road of muddy compromise, where they end up defaulting piecemeal (as in Greece, which effectively defaulted), but by stealth and in secret and with draconian conditions attached, and which hurts the poorer people of the EU disproportionately by forcing through massive cuts which don't actually solve the problem. Is Greece doing better than Iceland at the moment, is the austerity working? How will paying this bill help Cyprus?
They're undermining trust in the entire EU and EUR project, and there may come a time when governments are overthrown and countries leave the union because of it, and even (and I sincerely hope not) where countries go to war over it. It's fascinating and a little sad to see the same mistakes being made all over again.