The battle lines are being drawn, greater integration or disintegration.
See: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100012332/nein-nein-nein-and-the-death-of-eu-fiscal-union/
In particular I draw your attention to the following from the article:
Something profound has changed. Germans have begun to sense that the preservation of their own democracy and rule of law is in conflict with demands from Europe. They must choose one or the other.
Yet Europe and the world are so used to German self-abnegation for the EU Project – so used to the teleological destiny of ever-closer Union – that they cannot seem to grasp the fact. It reminds me of 1989 and the establishment failure to understand the Soviet game was up.
Against that the President of the European Commission is pressing for greater integration stating that national states cannot be trusted to sort out the problems.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,789300,00.html
Interesting article in Spiegel Online:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,789355,00.html
Democracy can have many faces -- even an absolutist one. Europe's democracies are taking on such features right now. Because so many leaders regard the European project as so titanic, they have abandoned all hope of being able to explain it to the general public. Leaders are ignoring their citizens because, hey, they're not going to understand it anyway. ... This attitude might buy time, but it gambles away Europe's reputation, its future and its legitimacy.
Quite.
Not for the first time, the future of Europe will be decided in Berlin. Certainly not in Brussels.
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