Deal on banking union will test goal of united Europe

"It is no wonder the EU finds it so hard to take decisions," said Charles Grant of the CER. "You have a sick patient on the bed and doctors gathered around who cannot decide on the nature of the illness or the medicine required to cure the patient."

...Making decisions still harder, Mr Grant added, was the effect of a pledge last year by the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, that the bank would "do whatever it takes" to defend the euro. Mr Draghi effectively calmed frenzied markets, but the promise also eased the anxieties that can prod urgent action. The European Union, Mr Grant said, "needs the spur of constant crisis for governments to do things against their own short-term interest."