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As European leaders meet in Milan on Wednesday [October 9] to discuss growth and employment, they should try to understand and address their divergences rather than burying them in joint declarations full of lip-service to their common determination.
Three years ago, the euro risked exploding under pressure from the markets. After considerable initial tensions, national governments – in particular those of France, Germany and Italy – worked closely together and reached landmark decisions in the European Council of June 2012.
The European Central Bank found those decisions convincing enough to justify a more accommodating stance.
By contrast today, amid quiet markets, it may be governments that are undermining the future of the euro – and the European economy as a whole. The French president, the German chancellor and the Italian prime minister arrive in Milan against a backdrop of escalating mutual recriminations. Even when couched in diplomatic terms, these reveal divergences of policy and, more deeply, of national cultures.