The Lost and Forgotten Lesson of German Reunification and How it Can Relaunch the European Union Project

The European Union has confronted, particularly in the past decade, with a diminishing position in the world economy in nominal terms (as percentage of world GDP), a decline of its global competitiveness and an increase in the diversity of the situations that cause troubles to its member states and regions that went far beyond the possibility of being efficiently managed by a single set of rules. Unfortunately, this growing diversity of situations, correlated with the increase of the inequality phenomenon in the developed countries, has been met by the European institutions with a more and more rigid framework that attempted to apply the principle “one size fits all” to a reality fundamentally characterized by diversity. This paper draws a parallel between the European Union's attempt to assist its member states and regions in reducing development gaps and the German reunification process after 1990 by suggesting a master plan that might relaunch the European Union's project, with a large support of the European citizens and along with that solving issues like economic growth and unemployment. The proposal starts from the German reunification lesson that was based on a massive financial intervention, correlated with a well-defined master plan that has been implemented with German rigor. At the same time, the proposal takes into account the economic projects that already exist in the European Union (particularly regarding infrastructure), as well as the low cost of money that characterizes the current international situation