The EU is learning a painful lesson: that its cosy consensus world of officialdom, diplomacy and contempt for voters, is not up to the mark when dealing with a full blown crisis.

The last two weeks have shown that the EU is better at puffing up fears about climate change, bird flu and other terrifying environmental perils than it is at dealing with a concrete problem that could lead to a full blown recession.

The EU has never been about abolishing national interests but always about managing them in a manner that is about convenience for Europe's political classes, with a heavy emphasis on consensus arrived at through secret and unwieldy bureaucratic procedures.

But as the current financial crisis has rushed headlong towards economic recession it is abundantly clear that institutions created for the benefit of diplomats and mandarins are not up to the job of stabilising febrile market institutions or getting cash (where it should be) into productive investments not dodgy bets on dodgier loans.