Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose at a subdued 1 percent pace during the first half of the year and only 1-1/4 percent over the past four quarters. This pace likely underestimates the momentum in aggregate demand because it includes a sizable inventory correction that began early last year.
Since member states are evidently still as reluctant to cede sovereignty rights to the European level as they were 25 years ago, I think that increasing the communitisation of liability is the wrong route to take. And that is why I am sceptical about calls to build a second wing, so to speak, on the basis of such initiatives.