The Lilliputian “Superstate”

For the past week, the papers have been full of the woes of David Cameron as Tory backbenchers sense the possibility of a new European settlement and try to put pressure on him to loosen Britain’s links or leave completely. In more elevated moments commentators have discussed whether a new Euro bloc, bound in a fiscal union, would act against Britain’s interests. What hardly anyone discusses is whether the EU can create a new settlement or Euro bloc, or whether the task is beyond it.

Eurosceptics have been showing off quite shamelessly. They point out, correctly, that they have exposed the establishment thinkers who supported the Euro as dupes or idiots. But on one point Eurosceptics have been horribly wrong. The EU is not the “EUSSR” or a bureaucratic dictatorship. It isn’t a super state or any kind of state, but a souped-up diplomatic alliance. To date it has failed to take any of the decisive measures a nation state is capable of.