EUROPE's RECOVERY: LEARN FROM THE MARSHALL PLAN


JUNE 26:

There is for the moment a lot of talk about how we in Europe should ensure a recovery after the present corona crisis. Everybody seems to agree that special and huge initiatives are needed.  Some have said that we need a new Marshall Plan for Europe – esp. to help those countries which are hardest hit.

What was the Marshall Plan?  It was a huge assistance programme, which the US initiated in 1948 to help Europe getting back on its feet again after the World War II. The programme lasted for four years – from 1948-52.  Its size was more than 12 billion dollars. In today’s money  ( 2020 ) it would be 129 billion dollars.  Most of the assistance was gifts, which should not be paid back.  Altogether 16 European countries accepted the offer.

The money was given with a number of important conditions:  The European countries had to abolish trade barriers between them, so trade could prosper again. And they had to work closely together. This was the start of the organisation OEEC ( Organisation for European Economic Cooperation ).  It was years later replaced by the OECD.

The plan was called the Marshall Plan – after the then American foreign minister George Marshall ( 1880-1959 ). He had in 1947 proposed the plan.  He was earlier American general – head of the US army during the whole of WWII.  In 1953 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his plan.  The plan official name was: European Recovery Program.

Why did the US give this huge support to Europe? They did it for several reasons:  The Americans wanted a strong Europe – politically and economically. And they feared that a weak and unstable Europe would be an easy victim for Stalin’s aggressive expansionist plans.

Why is all this relevant in today’s situation?  Because we in many ways are in the same situation again. Not in relation to the US, but internally in Europe.  We need to get our economy in full speed again – to ensure our welfare states and our European way of life. And we have to avoid economic chaos and instability, which easily brings political extremism mixed with populism and nationalism.  We have already seen enough of that ☹

That is why the European Commission – supported by most of the EU member states – has proposed a huge support programme called REVOVERY PROGRAMME FOR EUROPE.  Support with clear conditions.  And a mixture of gifts and loans.

There is in today’s situation a lot to be learned from the Marshall Plan. Not least for those few countries, which do not yet have the political courage and feeling of solidarity to know that such a huge programme will be an advantage to EVERYBODY in Europe.  Things take time.  Also mobilising political courage.  Personally, I am sure that it will all happen at the end 😊

Photo of foreign minister George Marshall:



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AMERICA IS COMING BACK TO THE WORLD !

Image
NOVEMBER 24: This is the day! The day when president Trump finally three weeks after the American elections de facto accepts that Joe Biden has won the elections.   And won by a big margin.   So, now US is coming back to the world.   The nominations president-elect Biden is doing shows that he is choosing experienced and professional people, who know what they will be responsible for.   This is also great news for Europe.    The European-American relations will now come back on the track – as real allies, not as sort of adversaries, as Trump preferred to see them.   EU president Charles Michel yesterday congratulated Biden with his victory and invited him to a summit meeting with EU in Brussels next year, after he has taken over in January. The EU with its 448 mio. inhabitants and the US with 328 mio. have a lot in common.   Their mutual trade is huge. In 2019 it was 720 billion dollars – which is about one third of all international trade. We will certainly see much more bilater
Read more

SHIP ELEVATORS IN BELGIUM

I have earlier written about Belgian culture. Today I want to tell you about Belgium’s INDUSTRIAL CULTURE.   In the beginning of the 19 th century the southern part of Belgium, Wallonia, was the most industrialised part of Europe – apart from England. It was based upon coal mines, iron and steelworks and a big network of internal waterways for transport.   East of Mons you can f.ex. see a former huge industrial complex, which today is an art museum.   The owners in 1810 built a lot of houses for their workers around the factory.   These houses are still there. The place is called GRAND HORNU. A very special side of the Walloon industrial culture was and are the so-called SHIP ELEVATORS.   They are huge elevators, which can lift ships up and down from different heights of the canals in the area. The first one in Houdeng-Goegnies was build in 1888. It can lift ships 15 meters up and down. Three more were added in 1917. Each of them can lift 17 meters. These old elevators are
Read more

CORONA SITUATION - AND A FEW PIECES OF ADVICE

Hello on this day - March 5 .  I will once again make comments about the Corona situation - incl. some good pieces of advice I have picked up. See below. I also enclose information linked to this day. And MY WARMEST CONGRATULATIONS to those of you celebrating your birthday or some other happy event today.  Have a wonderful day! I want once again to write an update on the CORONA situation – or COVID-19, as it is also called. It takes up a lot of space in the media – and sometimes also in the real world – for the time being. I want to remind you of the facts I gave in an earlier comment:  WHO , the UN World Health Organisation, informs us that the average number of deaths in the world from the “normal” flu every year is 660.000,  55.000 people per month. And I haven’t seen any figure for how many people are infected by the flu. It is most likely millions of people every year. I also in undramatic terms want to say that I have never seen any similar coverage in the med
Read more