Taming the Bear? Germany and Europe’s fragile eastern frontier

Over the past few years, the EU’s monetary woes have placed Germany’s central role within the European project in the limelight. Its sheer economic weight made its agreement to the various bail-outs and rescues mandatory; the Merkel government’s insistence on austerity over stimulus, and the over-ruling of elected governments have further weakened the Union’s claims to democratic legitimacy, already on shaky ground because of the weight of its unwieldy, powerful Brussels bureaucracy.