Since the start of the war in the Ukraine, most EU leaders have backed the Ukraine in its fight back against the agression of Russian President Putin. They were right to do so.
Such support brings in its wake consequences, some of which are financial. Arising from the support that the EU is giving and continuing to promise to the Ukraine, the financial burdens on its budget are increasing steadily.They will keep on doing so unless the war comes somehow to an end.
A recent study by the research services of the European Parliament has estimated that the financial commitments of the EU and its members have risen to above 150 billion euros and rising. Still these funds and the commitments for disbursements of more funds seem to be launched by political consensus, without sufficient monitoring as to why the funds are being spent, how and by whom they are being spent.
The sums involved are not slim. They are creating huge pressures on the EU’s budget.
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ARE CRISES USEFUL?
One sometimes gets told that emerging crises may not be such a bad thing after all. Due to them, reforms will at last be carried out which would otherwise never have been attempted. This -- again it has been said -- becomes more relevant in a democracy where decisions need to obtain the backing of a big number of citizens. Obviously, they will not relish the idea of having to accept disagreeable measures.
A crisis forces people to urgently review their priorities and adopt measures that till quite recently would have provoked a riot. And they would be measures having a vital resonance.
The argument carries some weight. But how true is it that crises can end up being a good thing? With them, they bring much confusion, upheaval and frequently much much pain.
When they boil over and cannot be ignored any more, it is wise to take tough decisions that could not otherwise have been taken. But it would have been much wiser if crises were avoided by early strong action taken to predict them and to mobilise a popular consensus in favour of containing them.
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THE END OF SUMMER
Many are shortly to experience -- unless they are already living it -- a time of sadness because of the fact that the summer, as occurred to its predecessors, is on the way out. It happens with every quarterly change: one has gotten accustomed to the present season and nostalgia steals in because it will soon have to go.
No doubt, schoolchildren are most subject to this effect. Following weeks of summer (not to mention other) holidays during which life could be lived freely, it is a unpleasant and sad prospect having to again endure days of discipline and study. At least that is how I remember such times, during which one clutches at what’s left of the freedom one has just been enjoying, while railing against the approaching restrictions.
Yet, all seasons have their positives. One quickly gets accustomed to the changes that happen when they move on. The approaching drudgery is transformed into a daily way of doing things. All seasons leave in their wake some sense of nostalgia. It soon gets spent.