Explicit federalism - not necessarily. But someone has to reintroduce accountability into European politics, and - ironically - for all its faults, the EU is often more accountable than national governments are.

More federalism is only bad if you assume that it undermines democracy. My point is that done properly it should have the opposite effect.

National governments are hardly democratic anyway, so - pursued properly - tighter federalisation could create democratic pressure for accountability from both above and below.

The catch is the 'done properly.' So far we've had a rambling not-the-constitution soap opera which no one understands and even fewer people care about. This is exactly the wrong approach to be taking, because it will give the nationalist right more influence, not less.