Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is talking sense. On the eve of her speech to Davos delegates Merkel has hinted that she will resist the IMF’s calls for a further 500 billion euro injection for bailout funds to struggling eurozone nations.

In an interview with six European newspapers Merkel said, “It makes no sense if we keep promising money but don’t combat the causes of the crisis.” She is right. The root cause of the eurozone crisis was not a lack of funds but an almost unimaginably irresponsible amount of government spending.

It is particularly reassuring to see Merkel speaking this way. Germany is the largest contributor to the already existing bailout fund, and it is understandable that Merkel would be hesitant to ask Germans to pay higher taxes or work longer so that irresponsible governments can exculpate themselves. There is only so long that German voters will put up with this.

Many of the countries at the root of the eurozone crisis should never have been let into the euro. Economically there was not a strong case for Greece to share a currency with Germany and France. However from a European federalist position, an expansive Europe made sense. The idea that Europe could ever be federalized in the same way as countries such as the United States is one of the central flaws of the European Union. No one in Europe feels like a European first and a Belgian or Spaniard second in the same way that someone might feel like an American first and a Floridian second. If Europe is going to recover from its current sovereign debt crisis then Europeans must face the fact that some countries should leave the euro. This is of course not to exclude these countries from the European community. Europe needs strong domestic trade amongst nations, but constituent nations need some of their sovereignty and responsibility back in order to achieve economic stability and growth.

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