A constitution for the European Union may be the bloc’s best option for overcoming the debt crisis currently facing member states, says CNBC reporter Rick Santelli.
On Friday’s “Squawk on the Street” on CNBC, Santelli, known as the father of the tea party movement, likened the current situation in Europe to the United States before the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
“We see that Europe’s interdependence among all the countries obviously is as intense as it’s ever been. But we also see that like the United States was before — what 1787, before they had an official constitution — they’re kind of a confederate group,” he said. “They’re a confederation. They don’t have that federal overlay.
“There is going to be one solution. The solution is going to be pushed by the marketplace,” Santelli predicted. “And that is a quickie constitutional convention. They have to have one. The Treaty of Lisbon doesn’t have the federal overlay. This is where it has to end up.”
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In 2005, some European nations rejected a referendum on a European Union constitution. But according to Santelli, the time is now to try it again, but under the direction of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“If I was an investor in Europe, I think it’s about the only thing on the grand scale of things that would put me in a mode where my anxieties would recede,” he said. “And I would think that Merkel and Germany could coordinate this. The Treaty of Lisbon outlived the usefulness… The real question is I think can you get the countries to sign up right away. But the issue is the people. It’s going to take logistics to have every country have their vote. The last time they tried to constitutional vote in Europe, it failed.”