I know I am getting dangerously close to articulating a "realist" political position, but there is nothing wrong with "national interests" if the nations in question have more in common than they have separating them. Then the task of the EU is to develop cohesion, solidarity, and institutional structures to safeguard the common interests of the sovereign member states as a whole and to mediate/arbitrate where differences remain.

Of course I would prefer an EU based on a much stronger European Demos and institutional base, but the EU as currently configured is still largely an alliance of 27 sovereign member states. A Banking Union with a common regulatory and resolution architecture making bondholders responsible for losses would be a step in the right direction.

Index of Frank's Diaries