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Others say it is too early to judge the Lisbon Treaty, adding that many of Europe's current problems are unrelated to the document. "The Lisbon Treaty is not like a new US president, you can't measure its first 100 days," Hugo Brady of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think-tank, told this website. … "She has been starting from scratch so it takes time. It is quite an achievement to create an institution. … The EU is a little bit more democratic," said Mr Brady.

"When it comes to EU politicians and the markets, there is definitely an asymmetry of arms," said Hugo Brady, a senior policy analyst at the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank. "One criticism has been that political leaders move incrementally, rather than in big steps, for understandable reasons," he said, pointing out that politicians have voters and other constituencies to consider, which markets do not. "In my view, the period of sending signals to the markets and seeing how they react has to end. It's not a game the politicians are winning.

The new US shale phenomenon is tied to favorable legislation on excavation permits, isolated and uninhabited areas and the growth of small, "technology-savvy" energy companies, according to Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform. … Barysch also said European experience with shale gas could not be compared to the US due to long-term contracts between Gazprom, the main Russian gas exporter, and several EU member states.

"Is the European Union functioning moderately better? Yes!" said Hugo Brady, of the Centre for European Reform. … "Ashton, whose new diplomatic corps also officially begins business on Wednesday, had an even tougher job to do than Van Rompuy … She had to fight to get inside the bureaucracy … It's now a grumpy teenager, hopeful after its preadolescent difficulties of growing up."

"My guess is that for quite a few years yet policymakers will do whatever they can to save this thing," said Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform. "If you sit in London, it's doomed. They don't understand the political investment. They look at the bond spreads and think it's doomed."

Turning the eurozone into a larger Germany, says Philip Whyte with the Centre for European Reform in London, could have adverse consequences - not only for the country itself but also for Europe and even the rest of the world. He maintains that "a more German eurozone" would be afflicted by chronically weak demand, debilitating cycles of competitive wage cuts and prolonged economic slumps in the deficit countries. Like many others, Whyte agrees the time has come to make some tough decisions.

But the assistance is "an act of self-preservation" rather than an act of friendly charity, according to Philip Whyte, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform. "Implicit in the bailout of Ireland's banks is the bailout of one's own banking system."

"It is over-egging it to say that Germany has become a dynamic growth motor for the rest of Europe," says Simon Tilford at the Centre for European Reform, a London think-tank. "If foreign demand for German products falls, we could see a renewed push by German companies to reduce wage costs and renewed stagnation of domestic demand."

"The euro is the biggest crisis facing Europe and it could carry on for another five years," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European reform. "The French are fearful of German euroscepticism, of German economic success, of the Germans going it alone on Russia and China, so they will go with Berlin. The Germans are back in the driving seat."