The outcome of the British government’s attempt to renegotiate the UK’s terms of membership of the EU and the referendum that will follow is highly uncertain, but does reveal quite a lot about David Cameron.

The idea is powerfully simple: on the basis of existing evidence, could a case be made – the government asked – that Golden Dawn is, in fact, an organised criminal group?

Mrs Merkel and much of the German political establishment doggedly espouse the doctrine of ordoliberalism, despite growing opposition not only on the left but on the right, with economic liberals such as Mario Monti and Guy Verhofstadt arguing for growth-inducing measures. Where can we look for an explanation? 

Elections in France in 2012, Germany in 2013, the European elections of 2014 and the ongoing negotiations for the reform of the EU’s multi-annual financial framework for the 2014-2020 period are opportunities. Whether socialists and social democrats will take advantage of them or not, remains to be seen.

This crisis is being used by the national leaders to push the EU down the wrong institutional path, namely intergovernmentalism. The British Tory-led government veto played a role in this, pushing the other member states down the only road that remained available to them, an intergovernmental treaty, but it did so on already ‘fertile ground’.

The Conservative Eurosceptic tradition in Britain presents itself as patriotic. Yet the rhetoric on sovereignty hides the real goal: unfettered markets and unregulated banks.