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The Lisbon treaty gives national parliaments only a limited role. Charles Grant of the CER, suggests enlarging this. He would give more prominence to COSAC, the group that brings together national parliaments' European affairs committees, perhaps putting a delegation of national MPs in Brussels to work more closely with the European Parliament.

But can he [Hollande] make a meaningful difference? "Only if he handles Merkel with great diplomatic dexterity," said Charles Grant of the CER. "Until recently, many German leaders seemed disconcertingly certain that their policies for dealing with the eurozone crisis were absolutely right."

Para SimonTilford, del CER, Alemania debe afrontar una difícil elección: "O niveles de inflación más altos a costa de la confianza del electorado alemán en el euro o la suspensión de pagos de varios Estados soberanos que, en última instancia, provocaría el colapso de la moneda común."

The euro project turns out to have been based on half-truths and false promises, yet as Simon Tilford of the CER says, abandoning it now could be even worse. Rich nations never expected to offer indefinite support to poor ones, nor poor ones to have their lives shrivelled by crushing debts.

“Paradoxically, every solution consists of more Europe,” concludes Charles Grant of the CER.

John Springford of the CER, warns that the nature of the crisis will have far-reaching effects. "Even in good times the rate of youth unemployment is higher than for older people, but the time spent out of work is usually short. Now the rate is much higher, and young people are out of work for much longer periods."

"Take the troika's forecasts of Greek GDP with a hefty pinch of salt, because the economy is in free fall," said Simon Tilford, an economist at the CER in London. ... "There will be have to be haircuts on the loans made to Greece by the eurozone governments ...

"There is definitely going to be an effort to present things in the best light possible, but the fact remains that as soon as we are talking about more ambitious forms of defence cooperation, which require large budgetary investments, it's really hard to progress and it's going to remain so for the foreseeable future," said Clara O'Donnell of the CER. ... O'Donnell said that, given its own budget woes, Washington wants to rely more on allies to take responsibility for their regions so the United States can reduce its involvement.