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First societies must become strong enough to cope with newcomers, according to Hugo Brady, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform. "It's disingenuous to say business needs migrants and we're all getting older so it'll all be fine. It skips over the fact that it doesn't follow that we can solve our demographic problems with lots of immigration. And it ignores the fact that our societies need to be set up for that. I'd be sceptical that societies could absorb immigration on the scale suggested by our demographics.

"Unless the EU changes track and agrees to make the EFSF (rescue fund) permanent and the ECB steps up its purchases of the hard-hit countries' government bonds, investors will believe that default is inevitable and demand correspondingly punitive interest rates," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the London-based Centre for European Reform. "Contagion to other member-states will be all but inevitable. If, and when, it reaches Spain, the crisis risks spiralling out of control," he said.

Since coming to power, Cameron has been mending fences with Merkel and Sarkozy, after his provocative decision in opposition to stop sitting with their parties in the European Parliament. Adopting Persson’s advice to "play politics" with economic governance, an issue that affects the eurozone more than Britain, would "antagonise" our partners all over again, says Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank. It would also, she says, "damage Britain's own interests.

That's partly why experts like Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London, are skeptical about Mr Sarkozy's goals. "I think he's hoping that taking on the G20, G8 will bolster his international credentials ... I think that could prove a bit of a forlorn hope. He's taking over at a time of considerable international tension. It's been a long time since we've seen such big differences on positons of key issues among the world's leading economies."...

Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London, says Sarkozy "had no choice" other than to get the reform through because otherwise France's - and his - credibility would have suffered. "For anyone outside of France, this looks like a pretty modest move forward ... Other EU countries are moving much much more rapidly" on pension reform. France has the highest life expectancy in Europe but still one of the lowest retirement ages, prompting Tilford to predict that retirement issues will come up again before markets believe that France has its finances in order.

"EU countries have 89 different weapons programs, while the US, whose budget is more than twice the size of the EU's defence budgets combined, has only 27," said Clara Marina O'Donnell, research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London. "The main challenge for NATO is that Europe, given its lack of defence capabilities and funds, is not using this chance for greater cooperation, however urgently it is needed." This fragmentation of Europe's defence markets has proved expensive and inefficient.

"The financial crisis did expose a number of problems with ratings agencies, including major conflicts of interest," Philip Whyte, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told Deutsche Welle. "The people that were paying credit rating agencies were the same people whose securities were being rated. There's also been a certain amount of disquiet about the power that ratings agencies have," he added.

From the perspective of those outside the United States, "Republican claims to fiscal probity are a little difficult to buy into," said Simon Tilford, the chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London. "What they're advocating would probably increase the deficit rather than effect the dramatic reduction which they claim they want to bring about."

"If the biggest country in the EU wants something, it's probably not unrealistic to say that it's going to get it," said Hugo Brady, a political analyst at the Centre for European Reform think-tank.