The levers for reviving it are mainly in the hands of the national authorities, but the immediate launch of common co-financed investment projects, with particular attention to the weaker countries, could be an important signal to citizens and investors, who are currently concerned by the poor growth prospects of individual countries or regions.
The availability of more common resources and also the constitution – proposed in several quarters – of a fund to which to transfer sovereign debt in excess of a uniform threshold, to be redeemed gradually according to a clearly defined calendar and procedures, are the substance of a form of fiscal union that cannot be uncoupled from cogent rules nor from powers of control and intervention.