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But Simon Tilford at the CER, says the new treaty does nothing to solve Europe's debt crisis. "The problem is that fiscal austerity will not solve this crisis, at least not alone. Fiscal austerity has in many ways become part of the crisis. Enforcing unending austerity on countries in the periphery has already made their predicaments much worse and threatens to make a bad situation in Spain and Italy even worse than it currently is." Mr Tilford says whether Britain will be weaker for staying out of the deal depends on what happens to the euro area.

Simon Tilford, from the CER agreed, "This week's summit will do little to solve the fundamentals of this crisis."... Mr Tilford told Channel 4 News the summit should have agreed a fully-fledged fiscal union. Instead, all it had done was tinker. "This is little different from what the eurozone already had: the stability and growth pact. All it does is require states to keep their budget deficits under 3 per cent. That is not a fiscal union, which would mean a federal budget and revenue-raising powers," he said. ...

"Der Premierminister hat den Euroskeptikern einen Fleischbrocken hingeworfen", sagt Simon Tilford von der Denkfabrik Centre for European Reform.

The summit was "a disaster for the UK," Charles Grant, director of the CER said in a statement. "For more than 50 years, a fundamental principle of Britain's foreign policy has been to be present when EU bodies take decisions, so that it can influence the outcome." What should really worry London now, Mr Grant said, is that it no longer has a seat at the negotiating table.       

"For the first time in the history of the EU, Germany is the unquestioned leader, and France is number two," said Charles Grant, of the CER, citing growing inquality ever since the financial crisis struck in 2008.

As Charles Grant of the CER has observed, the proposals for a stability union presented to the Brussels summit were essentially written in Germany, even if the odd page was edited in Paris.

It is not just eurosceptics who are opposed. Simon Tilford of the CER, told Channel 4 News: "I think a transactions tax would only work if agreed globally. Europe moving unilaterally would achieve little.

"Germany is the unquestioned leader of Europe," said Charles Grant, director of the CER. "France is definitely subordinate to Germany and Britain has less influence than at any time I can recall.

"France and Germany make no secret of wanting less Monnet and more de Gaulle," Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, wrote in an essay.