Debt Crisis: We Need a New Europe – Austrian Magazine

The EU in its present form is inefficient. It needs more federalism instead of increasing centralization, Contra Magazin wrote.

The ongoing euro and debt crises have shown that European political elites have failed. Almost the entire EU is becoming engulfed in poverty and debt, the magazine wrote.

The European Union in its current shape is unacceptable. Instead of prosperity it brings Europeans financial problems, while they need more federalism, freedom and direct democracy instead of increasing centralization, the article said.

Europe is in need of federal and democratic order such as European solidarity, a fair economy as well as freedom of the people. And this is almost the opposite of what is currently happening within the European Union, the newspaper wrote.

According to the author, real freedom means that the maximum political decision-making power should be transferred to those at the local and regional levels, where the wishes and needs of the respective local communities will be taken into account.

Democracy can only come from "below", and can never be imposed in a "top-down" way, the author wrote, stressing that Europe's strength lies in its diversity, which has been the key factor for the development of the continent for many centuries.