According to EU Observer, President Van Rompuy has said he is ‘looking to establish a clearer "hierarchy" among the EU institutions and member states to make it easier to deal with any future crises in the eurozone’.The President is ‘in charge of a task-force looking into the future of economic governance (as opposed to government) in the EU’. He want ‘informal procedures and informal co-ordination mechanisms’ be set up to help ‘give some coherence within the EU structure’.
The problem:
‘…certainly when you are in crisis - and there is not much hierarchy or organic links between the main players and the main institutions’
The solution:
‘We are working in order to have some crisis cabinet because we are a lot of players in the field…’
And the ‘informal structure’ is likely to include:
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barros
Head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet
And, of course, President Van Rompuy himself.
Not since the days of Octavian, Lepidus and Mark Antony has Europe been ruled by a triumvirate. This was formed on 26 November 43BC with the enactment of the Lex Titia, and it existed for two fixed five-year terms. The three-man directorate possessed supreme political authority.
And we all know how it ended.
Or perhaps, with the inexorable demise of the classics, we don’t.
As Burke observed: ‘Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.’
When will the Conservative Party take heed of the Father of Conservatism?
