'Europe's loss of economic & demographic weight is written in the sky'
Europe will lose its economic weight, in contrast to China and India, because globalist policies have deindustrialized Europe terribly over the past decades. This has to be changed, independent journalist Luc Rivet told RT.
The annual G-7 meeting could eventually be a thing of the past as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker thinks none of the EU's member states will be part of the group by mid-century, saying the writing is on the wall for Europe's economic might.
"We are losing economic weight in the next coming decades, we are around more or less 22-23 percent today, it will be 15-16-17 percent after 20 years. In 30 years not a single member of the European Union will be a member of the G7. And from a demographic point of view, we are losing weight to put it frankly," Juncker said on Thursday.
The G7 is composed of the seven most industrially advanced countries which meet annually to discuss global economic policy.
RT: Are you surprised to hear this coming from the President of European Commission? Why did he say this?
Luc Rivet: Juncker has always been very provocative - it is his way. Frankly, he is right. Obviously, we will lose weight - that is written in the sky. India and China have more than [2.5] billion people and qualified people and their techno sphere is at the same level as ours here in Europe. Maybe Mr. Juncker says it just to justify a united Europe. But in 30 years' time, he is right, there will maybe still be Germany but the others, Italy, France, etc. will have gone from the G7 and they will have been replaced by China or India.
The problem is Mr. Juncker and the commissions before him, they deindustrialized Europe terribly over the last decades with their globalist policies. Now all our industries, all what we produce is in China. The subcontractors are in China or in Southeast Asia. We need to re-industrialize Europe.
That is what he says, by the way, as well. The commissioners have changed their discourse, the way they talk completely. Now, they talk again about re-industrializing Europe just like Donald Trump is trying to do in the US, for example… He is provocative but in this instance he is right.
And he mentions also demographics at the end of the speech. And he is right in the sense that we have less children. Young European couples need to work, both of them. They don't have time for kids. They have to pay for the apartment and to pay for the taxes. Because they give back something like 55 percent of the richness that we produce. This must change.
Europe is wrong on so many instances that we absolutely need a change. And the left and right government in Italy has decided to improve demographics of Italians by giving incentives to young couples to have children. There is a change in the policies that are going to be applied. Certainly, from May 2019 after next European elections.
RT: Russia used to be included in the G7 but was expelled over politics. How about letting Russia in? Would that be of any assistance to the group?
LR: I think it would be. It is crazy that Russia is not there. Europeans are totally wrong in their policies towards Russia. The sanctions issues and tit-for-tat was started by Europe. We were wrong. Only our economy suffers, our companies. Maybe you can't find parmesan in Moscow, but it is the producers who suffer in Italy. We need to change that.
Russia needs to be back in the G7. That is for sure, because it is one of the giants in the world. We need to stop using politics in the economic field. The G7 is above all an economic summit and we shouldn't do politics there. Russia should be back, for sure.
RT: Could there be more political disagreements within the remaining members? Italy's budget, for example.
LR: The budget issue is important. It is because Europe wants to go united and it is only the Eurozone that has this issue. For the rest of the European countries it is less important… But for the group of euro countries, euro is a common currency, they need to drive the euro together and to limit their deficit, to limit their debt in general. And of course, there is an issue now between the European Commission and Italy because Italy wants to apply policies to relaunch its economy. And Europe disagrees. It is a difficult time but it could be solved.
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