Happy Birthday - Euro
At last, people are beginning to admit, publically, that the Euro was always a political invention, which has been blindingly obvious to any student of EU history. Today, when the European Commission celebrates the 10th anniversary of the official decision to adopt the Euro, even the BBC's Mark Mardell, not known for his EU scepticism, is admitting the fact.
In the words of one insider, although the euro was a deeply political project, the eurozone is at the moment "an economic giant but a political dwarf".
and how to help it become an economic giant?
One [prescription] is that economic ministers should think more about their responsibilities to the bloc as a whole, and less of their national interest.
In a phrase almost designed to give a delicious shiver to eurosceptics, the commission promises to "better exploit all instruments provided by the Lisbon treaty to promote broader economic policy coordination."
Note also the slow, unremitting steady creep towards the European superstate, that we have been promised by our Westminster parliament, will never happen.
One idea is to exclude extraneous chatter from mere nation states at the world's top tables.
The commission will argue for a single seat in international financial bodies. I can't get any clarity but I presume they mean the IMF, the OECD, the World Bank and perhaps the G8.
"At the moment we take up too many seats, too much space," says one official.
One day the question will be asked. "How did we ever allow this take over to happen?" but then it will be too late.
Read Mark Mardell's report at Mark Mardell's Euroblog
