It is hard to overstate the magnitude of events currently unfolding in Europe.

Three weeks ago, in discussions about rescuing Greece, Germany and fellow eurozone states barely managed to agree on a bailout package totaling €30 billion. Last Friday, when the German parliament finally approved lending Greece the money, the bailout had swollen to €110 billion. Two days later, in the wee hours of Monday morning, the German-dominated European Union revealed that €750 billion had been made available to ailing eurozone countries.

In less than a month, what began as a €30 billion bailout of Greece had ballooned into a €750 billion line of credit.

Something significant—very significant—is afoot in Europe!

The dramatic action by the EU (together with the International Monetary Fund) over the weekend grew out of events from the preceding week. In Greece, tens of thousands went on strike and took to the streets in protest against the austerity measures imposed by Germany in return for bailout money. Remarking on the death of three rioters Wednesday last week, Greece’s President Karolos Papoulias warned that his country had “reached the edge of the abyss.”

Inevitably, fears of a global contagion began to quickly spread. Global confidence in eurozone economies, particularly the highly indebted nations of Spain, Portugal and Italy, plummeted. Jitters besieged stock markets across the world, which began to spiral downward. By Friday, the euro had fallen to a 14-month low against the dollar, sparking alarm that the EU’s currency—the primary symbol of European integration—was under assault.

An air of desperation was beginning to settle over the Continent.

In Berlin last Thursday, even the normally reserved German chancellor sounded worried. “Nothing less than the future of Europe is at stake,” she told the German parliament. “Immediate help is needed to ensure the financial stability of the eurozone. This must be done to avoid a chain reaction to the European and international financial system, and contagion to other eurozone states. There is no alternative” (emphasis mine throughout).

By Friday it was obvious that extreme measures were needed—and fast.

The sense of urgency was evident Saturday, when Germany’s high court rejected a case that asserted the Greek bailout was unconstitutional. The German high court’s decision was “unprecedented,” observed Stratfor. “The case was only filed last week, and the court rejected the case May 8 (a Saturday!) so that Berlin would have the needed legal cover to move immediately on this new crisis fund. Normally EU policy is hashed out over years. Now it is being done in hours, and Berlin is taking charge. Something big is coming” (May 8).

Less than 48 hours later, the “something big” arrived—in the form of a €750 billion (us$1 trillion) rescue package administered by what is essentially a new European fiscal agency!

When markets opened Monday, it appeared the EU’s “shock and awe” defense of the euro had worked. Stocks jumped immediately. The euro strengthened. The hand of disaster had been stayed; global confidence in the European project had been restored. Or so it seemed. (Both the euro and European stock markets retreated Tuesday, indicating that confidence in Europe is far from being fully restored.)

Beyond its many financial implications for Europe, the EU’s sudden rescue package comes with sobering political ramifications. Turns out, the gargantuan bailout stands to radically increase the reach of the EU into the sovereign operation of member states!

“If the early reports are near true,” noted the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, “the accord profoundly alters the character of the European Union. The walls of fiscal and economic sovereignty are being breached. The creation of an EU rescue mechanism with powers to issue bonds with Europe’s aaa rating to help eurozone states in trouble … is to go far beyond the Lisbon Treaty. This new agency is an EU Treasury in all but name …. A European state is being created before our eyes.”

And remember, Germany is the architect of this European state!

Across the Atlantic, Anne Applebaum at the Washington Post parsed the Council of the European Union’s “decision” regarding Greece. “This is no ordinary piece of Euro-bureaucracy. This is the kind of thing a surrendering field marshal signs in a railway car in the forest at the end of a bloody war.” In exchange for bailout money, Greece must adopt a host of legal and budgetary changes concocted in Brussels, under the guiding hand of Germany. Of course, the EU has always demanded the partial surrender of sovereignty from its member states. But under these new conditions, Greece, as Applebaum noted, “no longer has much sovereignty at all.”

It appears Greece will be rescued, but at the cost of its national sovereignty!

“The European Union has decided what Greece ‘shall’ do,” Applebaum wrote. “I don’t believe anybody, least of all the Greeks, knew that the European Union had so much power over its member states. … Though no one is saying so, this visible imposition of EU power on Greece will also serve as a warning to others…. If you don’t play by the rules, you risk coming under foreign financial occupation.”

The ramifications of what happened over the weekend are truly startling. Germany, via this massive EU-led rescue package, could potentially gain an unprecedented reach into the day-to-day operation of sovereign European states. It is acquiring the means of ultimately reconfiguring Europe according to German designs—both economically and politically. Concrete evidence now exists showing that Berlin is achieving with its checkbook what it failed to achieve 70 years ago: unchecked political and economic dominion over Europe!

In her article, Applebaum implied that “no one” is talking about the EU’s proclivity to impose its power on member states. Perhaps she ought to read Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s article “The Holy Roman Empire Is Back!” (from the February issue of our free print magazine). “The Holy Roman Empire became official Jan. 1, 2010,” he warned. “The EU constitution was signed in November 2009. It is far from being a democratic constitution. The EU is absolutely domineered by Germany—a nation that started World Wars i and ii!”

Think on this statement too: “The EU is now comprised of 27 nations. But your Bible says it will have 10 kings. That means this political-religious union is about to be radically reduced. Perhaps another financial crisis, or some other disaster, will produce that result.” Surely the EU’s sudden and dramatic €750 billion “shock and awe” rescue package is a sign that Europe is in deep “financial crisis”!

Truth is, Europe is very likely in the throes of the “financial crisis” that could whittle the European Union down into a smaller, more unified, more streamlined and more powerful political entity!

If you haven’t already, events currently unfolding in Europe make it imperative that you read “The Holy Roman Empire Is Back!”