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Hugo Brady, who follows EU migration policy for the CER, a London-based think-tank, does not believe that calls for a more rational debate are necessarily realistic. "It might be intellectually coherent to say that we need 50 million immigrants to keep Europe's economic growth going over the next decades," he says. "But Europe does not have the social and political capacity to deal with massive immigration."

"The court ruling removes a substantive obstacle, but there’s no doubt that the situation still looks pretty grave," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London. The underlying problems of heavily indebted states and weak, undercapitalised banks still have to be addressed to find a long-term solution, Mr. Tilford said.

Some defence experts, like Tomas Valasek of the London-based Centre for European Reform, suggest that Washington's diplomacy worked, in that during the Libyan conflict "the allies established a new division of labour for NATO operations on Europe's borders, which should be encouraged."

Katinka Barysch of the Centre for European Reform in London said the Finnish attitude was harmful for Europe. "That is an attitude that if it materialised in Germany would be very dangerous," Barysch said. "The only good solution I can imagine is to get rid of this. If the Greeks were able to give collateral for all the bonds they issue or for the money we lend them, they wouldn't need us anyway."

Charles Grant, director of the London-based Centre for European Reform, recently wrote about "Marine Le Pen and the rise of populism" In his analysis he quoted the leader of France’s Front National as having said: "Left and right don’t mean anything anymore – both left and right are for the EU, the euro, free trade and immigration. … For 30 years, left and right have been the same; the real fracture is now between those who support globalisation and nationalists."

Tomas Valasek of the Centre for European Reform, a think tank in London, says opportunities exist for smarter defence spending. Most spending is not for military operations, he says, but for things like training, education and procurement. Four-fifths of European equipment budgets are spent on products from domestic manufacturers, which often don't offer the best value. "There's a shocking contrast between the way we fight together and the way we build our forces in splendid isolation from each other," he says.

Germans feel poorer and more troubled in their own economy it will make them less generous in providing aid, in making full use of the EFSF, in considering things like euro bonds. They will have more worries, be more insecure," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform in London.

Philip White, of the London-based Centre for European Reform, explains that EU leaders are torn between meeting the demands of the markets and upholding democratic norms: "The stage we are at in the eurozone crisis presents politicians with a deeply uncomfortable position: trying to convince markets that they are taking the necessary action to place economies on a more sustainable path and that the euro is here to stay while on the other hand to persuade their electorates that they are respecting democratic traditions." "If you look at the debt and deficit numbe