The full Monti

Aidan Regan at the EUI has a fascinating account of Mario Monti’s thoughts on a range of European issues here. Monti is particularly keen on increasing the capacity for effective decision-making at European level, and indeed the slow-motion political response to the crisis in the Eurozone has revealed how badly this is needed. Monti wants to see a stronger role for the European parliament relative to the Council, which would over-ride most of the current powers of national systems – something more like a political union than a federation. Here, at its starkest, is the choice facing an EU torn between efficiency and accountability. National-level decision-making is already dominated by the need to respond to external pressures, and as Peter Mair has argued, this makes voters feel their immediate concerns are being overlooked. It seems to me very doubtful whether national electorates have any will to endorse the radical shift in the locus of decision-making that Monti is calling for.