I do not know whether to weep or laugh. Eurozone leaders turn a €50bn Greek solvency problem into a €1,000bn existential crisis for the European Union. President Barack Obama cannot remember “whether it was Merkel, Sarkozy or Barroso” – no first names or titles – who told him, as grand hopes for the Cannes summit turned to dust, “welcome to European politics”. And David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, calls on the European Commission – the embodiment of “Brussels” bureaucracy and elitism that his government loves to hate – to prevent the 17 eurozone countries running the EU show in their own interests.
The only people satisfied are euro-sceptics and federalists. Both say, “I told you so”. Both make valid points about weaknesses of Europe’s hybrid structure – part intergovernmental and part supranational. Both feed off each other to tell their supporters that now is the moment for rupture with the compromises of the past.
Every political system is a balance of efficiency and legitimacy. The sceptics sacrifice efficiency for legitimacy. Their arguments about sovereignty ignore the reality of an interdependent world – in which regional collaboration is going to become more important. The federalists substitute efficiency for legitimacy. They ignore the reality that national particularities, far from disappearing, are on the rise.