for the euro countries to go the full federalist hog and adopt a single fiscal system.

And then what?

The very disunity, clash of political cultures, and lack of economic cohesiveness that have been dogging the Eurozone won't vanish just because when Europe becomes a fiscal federation.

Quite the opposite, they will lead to even worse conflicts:

• don't expect the citizens of the economically successful countries to acquiesce when the fruits of their labor are taxed away and handed to the less successful ones

• Speaking of which: their citizens in turn will not welcome the EU dictating domestic policy, and forcing austerity programs on them

A federal Europe would have to be even more undemocratic and elitist than the current one, so it can govern the peoples of Europe without their consent.

"Time and again, you see politicians fail at the national level like Jacques Delors, Roy Jenkins and Peter Mandelson and then they are reincarnated at the European level."

You have to forge a coalition that ultimately is going to disappoint the majority of the electorate. That's why power is shifting inexorably to Brussels

Thank you for providing examples, Mr Ferguson.

Ferguson is unconcerned. "This is the dilemma. Europe is essentially an antipopulist, if not antidemocratic phenomenon. European integration has always been a project of the elite that has been foisted on national electorates. There is a latent populism in almost every European country that flares up periodically, as it did, for example, in Austria under Jörg Haider, but at each stage in the process the populists lose.

Look at the latest Greek election results - if the EU pushes the people hard enough, the populists can in fact win. their