Soros: European Union Must ‘Reinvent Itself’

Billionaire Investor George Soros on Tuesday claimed the European Union was in the midst of an “existential crisis.”

“Everything that could go wrong [in Europe] has gone wrong,” Soros said during a speech to the European Council on Foreign Relations in Paris.  

In a speech titled “How to Save Europe,” Soros highlighted the bloc’s failure to handle the 2015 refugee crisis and claimed its austerity policies have “hindered Europe’s economic development.” The billionaire also expressed concerns regarding territorial fragmentation and the political chaos in Spain. 

The ongoing Brexit negotiations are distracting the bloc from factors that could cause a “major financial crisis,” warned Soros, citing a strong USD, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA, and uncertainty over tariffs that threaten transatlantic trade.

The only way for the EU to avoid disaster is to “reinvent itself,” continued Soros. This includes transforming into “an association that countries like Britain would want to join” and removing regulations which dictate the number of refugees each EU member should accept. 

Soros also called on grassroots organizations to engage with middle-class citizens and outlined a program to boost education and employment in Africa. The program, which would cost $34 billion per year, could significantly reduce the number of people seeking refuge. The EU could easily fund the program through its “largely unused” borrowing capacity, he added.

“I want to point out that the proposal contains an ingenious device that would enable the EU to borrow from the market at a very advantageous rate without incurring a direct obligation for itself or for its member states.”

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George Soros is a Hungarian-born investor and liberal activist who has repeatedly been criticized for meddling in European politics via his Open Society Foundation – which in 2016 lobbied heavily against Brexit.

Earlier this month, Soros announced he would be pulling OSF out of Hungary following aggressive opposition from Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the ruling Fidesz Party. Orban, who was re-elected last month, campaigned against Soros’s liberal immigration policies, which he warned would flood Hungary with Muslim immigrants and undermine national culture. 

Author’s Note: Soros is calling out a crisis, but his solutions would be much worse. His criticism of the refugee crisis is too late. His criticism of austerity is stupid because austerity is the only way for countries to get back on solid financial footing. His criticism of Brexit is absurd because the whole point of the referendum was to give people an opportunity to escape the EU’s foolish policies. 

And his proposal to use borrowing to fund potential solutions to the refugee crisis would put the EU in massive debt. If the EU follows Soros’s socialist and liberal policies, it really will be facing an existential crisis. 

Editor’s Note: Adding to the above, I believe the EU is already facing an existential crisis. The Muslim population is expanding massively and they could very possibly win in a population war.