Europe needs a plan. A new impetus to spur it forward, a new way of thinking and acting which will enthuse the people who are part of it. A federal system of government which grants a great deal of autonomy to its constituent parts. If the State is a Leviathan then it has grown so because it governs more and more things. The Germans who have created a strong federal system of government seem very prone to centralizing power in Brussels, and issuing 'red-tape'. I am not an expert in what exactly this 'red-tape' might be but that it is not the point. It seems like a far more flexible approach is required. The age of Iron Chancellors is over and now we are in the age of bendy, shiny, plastic Presidents.
It would probably not be prudent to allow the Greeks to print their own reserve currency to use while still officially remaining in the Euro, and allowing this currency to be convertible to the Euro. Would this be tantamount to leaving the Euro? Probably. A trillion EUR investment in the less developed areas of Europe seems a more sensible way to spend money than buying back Bonds and watching the money disappear into inflated non-productive financial asset prices.
I have to think that if the UK, or any other nation, could simply opt-out of things they did not want to do then the whole project might move forward. This seems a more organic way to grow rather than rule by disliked decree. The way the EU operates at the moment has created popular anti-EU political movements. Folk cannot see the benefits of being in the EU, Folk feel denied access to their Democratic right when it comes to the EU; the EU interferes often with their nationally elected governments.
Nations must be allowed to retain their autonomy within the greater super-structure. In the next hundred years I would very much like to see Scotland, Catalonia, Basque, Naples, Milan, Bavaria and maybe even my own region of Scotland the Kingdom of Fife as member states.
It is apparently Bismarck's anniversary soon, I wish him well.