Who speaks for the euro?

That’s a more relevant question that you might think. Despite European leaders talking for ages about the nonsensical notion of the EU ‘speaking with one voice’ after the Lisbon Treaty, the situation is much more confused today ever. No fewer than six people purport to speak officially for the Euro, while people actually tend to listen to two different leaders altogether.

There is ECB chief Mario Draghi, but also Jose Manuel Barrosso, the Commission President; his colleague Oli Rehn, the Commissioner for Monetary Affairs; Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the Eurogroup; Klaus Regling, head of the EFSF; and finally Herman Van Rompuy.

Add to this the two leaders people and markets actually listen to – Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy – and Europe has a recipe for miscommunication. With a new set of European arrangements supposedly being mulled over in Paris and Berlin, I would be surprised if institutional consolidation was not included.