EURO, THE MARKETS ATTACK
In 2010, the sovereign debt crisis almost pushed Greece into bankruptcy, paralyzed Spain, Portugal and Ireland and almost toppled the euro. The Union finally helped the most threatened Eurozone States and saved its currency.
This crisis has had a very high cost for European citizens – the cost of public debt has exploded for some countries and governments have had to adopt austerity measures, of unprecedented harshness, in order to reassure the markets.
But why the latters suddenly turned away from the Eurozone? Euro, The Market attacks! retraces the six months of clashes between the States, and between the States and the markets: Jean-Michel Meurice and Jean Quatremer have explored the origins of the crisis and the way it was managed by the Union, whether a “market conspiracy” might have existed, and the risks to the euro. Does the Union have the means to withstand a new attack from the markets?
Jean-Michel Meurice
Born in 1938 in Lille, Jean-Michel Meurice has been working for the last 40 years both as a painter and director. In the early eighties, he led the documentary unit of Antenne 2 and wrote a great number of documentary films, for which the Grand Prix National de la Création Audiovisuelle (National Award for Television creation) was awarded to him in 1992. He also founded the channel Arte, which he led from 1986 to 1989. Since 1989, Jean-Michel Meurice is part of the advisory council of La Sept-Arte broadcasting. He conceived and leads a series of films on geopolitical topics: Histoires d’actualité (Newsreel stories).
Jean Quatremer
After a law school, Jean Quatremer enters the newspaper Libération in 1984. Since September 1990, he has been specialized in European news for this daily paper; besides, he wrote two books on European topics: “Ces hommes qui ont fait l’Euro, querelles et ambitions européennes” – the men who built Euro, European quarrels and ambitions (Plon, 1999), and “Les Maîtres de l’Europe” – the Masters of Europe (Grasset, 2005). He also directed and wrote a series of documentary films for television (Arte, France 2, France 5). In December 2005, Jean Quatremer launched his own blog, which obtained the Louise Weiss Award for European Journalism on May 2006 – as the first blog to ever win such an award. Since September 2008, Jean Quatremer is president of the French section of the European Journalists Association (AJE).
Broadcast
until January 2012
Aired on Arte on November 19th and on December 7th, 2010 (59″00′)
International Sales
Arte France distribution
Arte Sales
Coproduction / presales
ARTE GEIE
YLE (Finlande)
SKAI TV (Grèce)
ANEMON PRODUCTIONS (Grèce)