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第6课 欧盟的发展 Economic Trouble Cloud New Market’s Future
经济问题使新市场前景阴暗
一、(Excerpts)(摘录) By Howard Lafranchi
Staff Writer of The Christian Science Monitor
When the European Community’s vast single market officially takes effect on Jan.1, there will be no balloons and brass bands, and holiday fliers between EC cities will still face passport checks at airports.Europeans will wake up new year’s day with the same 10 per cent unemployment and doubts about European unity.
当欧洲共同体的统一大市场在1月1日正式启动的时候,不会有气球与军乐队,并且在欧共体的城市间乘飞机度假的人依然将面临在机场的护照检查。新年第一天欧洲人醒来将依然面临着10%的失业率和对欧洲统一的怀疑。
“There won’t be the big bang some might have expected,” says Ricardo Perissich, Ecdirector-general for the single market.
“不会有一些人可能期待的翻天覆地的变化,”欧共体负责单一市场的秘书长里卡多·佩里西齐说。
Yet in its current dour mood, Europe risks almost overlooking the revolutionary step forward it has taken in creating the world’s largest and wealthiest barrier-free market—and on a continent where, for centuries, economic battles have let to some of history’s bloodiest wars.Moreover, a failure to reinforce the single market by pushing forward with European integration could lead to an unraveling of what the internal market program has achieved, some observers say. 然而在目前抑郁的情绪中,欧洲似乎忽视了欧共体统一市场这一具有革命性意义的步伐,因为统一市场是创立了世界上最大的、最富有的自由市场,而在过去几个世纪欧洲经济纷争曾经导致了人类历史上最为血腥的战争。另外某些观察人士表示,如果无法通过推进欧洲一体化来加强统一市场,那将已经取得的市场一体化成果就可能付诸东流。
“The single market is central to the community’s progress, but it is by no means certain that it could stand alone,” says one senior EC official here, “if the political will to continue moving forward fails, we can anticipate more strains in the marriage contract that ultimately would strike at what we’ve accomplished.”
“统一市场是欧共体进程的核心环节,但统一市场不能孤立的存在”,一位欧共体高级官员表示,“如果丧失了继续前进的政治意愿,那么联盟就会出现更多的紧张因素,最终将影响我们已经取得的成绩。”
The EC’s languishing Maastricht Treaty for deeper political and economic integration is the obvious example cited.Without the prospect of a single European currency, as called for in Maastricht, the single market risks experiencing more of the damaging monetary instability of the past few months, some analysts note.And without the promise of deeper political integration, those EC countries looking for more than a glorified free-trade zone could tire of the single market’s free-market philosophy. 其中旨在加深欧洲政治经济一体化的《马斯特里赫特条约》的久拖不决就是欧洲各国缺乏政治意愿的明显例证。某些分析人士表示,如果《马斯特里赫特条约》
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所倡导的统一欧洲货币无法落实,那么过去几个月在欧洲统一市场发生的货币格局动荡就会在未来重演。如果缺乏加深政治合作的决心,那么那些希望欧洲不仅能组建经济联盟而且也能组建政治同盟的国家就会对老生常谈的自由市场理念感到厌倦。
As Europe’s economy has soured, free-market ideas that are new to much of Europe face new challenges.“It’s worth remembering that a majority of the questions asked during the debate in France on the Maastricht referendum actually had nothing to do with Maastricht at all, but with measures already taken under the single market.” says Perissich.“We are not safely beyond a backlash against the new world of competition.”
由于欧洲的经济已经恶化,欧洲大部分地区都不熟悉的自由市场思想将面临新的挑战。“值得记住的是,在法国的讨论会期间被问及的关于马斯特里赫特条约的公民复决权的大部分问题实际上与马斯特里赫特条约没有任何关系,而是与统一大市场下已经采取的措施有关系。”佩里西齐说。“出现大规模抵制新竞争世界的风险依然存在。”
If Europeans aren’t bursting to give the single market a coming-out party, it may simple be that markets aren’t the kinds of things people gush about, as EC commission president Jacques Delors has often noted.The fact that free movement of people—an aspect of the market that will be most evident to the average person—is not yet a reality also plays a role. 欧共体委员会主席雅克·德洛尔斯经常说,如果欧洲人并不对统一市场欢呼雀跃,那么市场并不是欧洲人民的最终期待。比如统一市场应包含的且对普通个人更具意义的自由迁徙权至今尚未实现,这也可能是欧洲人对统一市场并不激动的原因。
Another explanation is that many of the market’s original 282 directives have already been implemented.
另一个原因是统一市场所包含的282项行动纲领中许多其实都早已实施。
“By Jan.1 we will have passed 95 per cent of what sought in 1986 to create the single market, and much of that will already have been translated into national law,” says Perissich.“Adjustment to the market has been going on for years and won’t be expected over-night.”
“到1月1日,我们曾在1986年谋划统一市场时规划内容中的95%都已经落实,并且大多数已被设立为各国法律,”佩里西齐说,“统一市场的建设已经持续多年,它并非是发生在一夜之间。”
But perhaps the major reason is the dark economic clouds now hanging over Europe.One of the central justifications for the single market was its ability to create greater prosperity, but it is making its debut just as Europe traverses one of its roughest economic storms in years.
但或许欧洲人对统一市场缺乏热情的主要原因还是笼罩在欧洲上空的黑暗的经济乌云。建设统一大市场的基本理由是它能够创造更大的繁荣,但统一市场推出之时却正是近年来欧洲经济最为低迷之际。
“We’re going to wind up 1992 with just about the same level of unemployed—nearly 10 per cent community wide—that we had before this project,” says an aide to Mr.Delors.In addition, economic growth is skidding to an anticipated 1 per cent next
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year.All of which adds up to consumer and business confidence sinking to the same lows recorded during the pre-single market days of Europessimism. “在1992年欧洲的失业率仍将高达10%左右,该水平相对于统一市场推出之前并无改善,”德洛尔斯的某位下属说。另外,明年经济增长率预计将下跌至1%。所有这一切使消费者和企业信心降到了与统一大市场推出前“欧洲悲观主义”盛行时代相当的低水平。
Both EC and independent analysts say that business anticipated the economic benefits of the single market, so that much of the burst of economic activity in preparation for the new market has already occurred.
欧共体内观察家的和独立分析人士都指出,企业界早在统一市场正式推出前就看到了可能带来的收益,因此大部分的经济增长效应其实在统一市场准备阶段就已发生。
Business investment, which had been flat for the five years preceding the decision in 1985 to create the single market, soared to a 7 per cent annual growth rate from 1985-1990.GNP growth over the same five years averaged 3.5 per cent; mergers, joint ventures, and plant modernizations took off; and the moribund economies of new EC members, Spain and Portugal jumped with new life.
企业投资在1985年决定创建统一市场前的五年时间一直没有增长,但1985年至1990年的欧洲企业投资年增长率却高达7%。在同期间内,欧共体国民生产总值年均增长3.5%;企业兼并、合资企业和企业更新开始涌现;欧共体新成员以及西班牙和葡萄牙等本来增长乏力的经济开始焕发新的活力。
But beyond the short-term statistics, many analysts say the real revolution of “1992”—Brussels shorthand for the single market project—is how it has changed the way Europe works and how it approaches business.
但除了短期经济数据之外,许多分析人士指出“1992行动”―― 欧共体官员对统一市场计划的代名词——的真正革命性意义是改变了欧洲的工作方式和企业经营方式。
“Adoption of the 1992 program led to [national] budget cuts, deregulation, privatizations, and a general cutback in the excess role of the state,” says Jaeques Pelkmans, a researcher at the center for European policy studies here and author of an upcoming book on “how 1992 changed European integration.” “1992行动的落实推动了各国预算削减、监管放松、私有化进程和政府行为削减,” 欧洲政策研究中心的研究员杰克·佩尔克曼斯说,他的专著《1992如何改变欧洲一体化》即将出版。
Mr.Pelkmans is not among those who believe that the EC’s single market is threatened by the doubt building over Europe’s continued integration.“1992 is a set of laws, and because of the mutual stakes no one would take a breach of those laws lightly,” he says.
佩尔克曼斯不认为目前对欧洲一体化进程的质疑会威胁统一市场的运行。“1992行动是一系列的法律,由于各方利益高度相关,因此没有人会轻易去破坏这些法律,”他说。
But he also acknowledges that further progress opened up by 1992 will be more difficult because the strong leadership that existed across the EC as the single market was being implemented is no longer present.
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