Furthering democracy within the European Union has and will be forwarded by transitional crises. I don't think inking hands every four or so years for some sort of president will do much. We are living through one of Europe's major crisis, the Euro crisis with consequences such as Hungary. It should cause some major structural upheaval. I don't know what. Forcasts are welcome.

A reminder: At the beginning of the Common Market, France, Germany and other members pressed for the admission of fascist Spain. This brought about the reaction of the Parliamentary Assembly that appointed a Nazi victim, Willi Birkelbach, to draft a non-binding report on the negotiations. His report set the stage for what the Union was to be, a union of democratic states. Fascist Spain lost its bid, settled for trade agreements, and eventually was admitted once it had become a democracy in 1986.

So the point is that crises generate democratic telluric shifts in the Union. And we are in the middle of perhaps the worst.