Is Europe's troubled union really ready to change?

By Luke Baker

After six decades of relentless if incremental integration, might the European Union be about to go into reverse?

The "ever closer union" enshrined in EU treaties since 1957 no longer looks so assured after a voter backlash in May's European Parliament elections and Britain's increasingly strident demands for a looser relationship with Brussels.

As the smoke clears from the battle over nominating Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, the gulf between Britain and its EU partners looks wider than ever although all sides talk of focusing more determinedly on public concerns about jobs and prosperity.

Brussels insiders say that for all the talk of radical reform, the 28-nation union is unlikely to change much either towards deeper integration or to greater decentralization in the next five years.

Asked whether the "wind of change" was likely to lead to any discernible shift in the coming years, more than one official quoted Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's "The Leopard", a fresco of stratified 19th century Sicilian society.

"Everything needs to change so that everything can stay the same," said a Commission veteran with 20 years' experience.

"We've heard the promises many times before. They are always genuine and probably well intentioned, but the reality is different. Things don't change just like that."

Since the creation of a coal and steel community among six countries in the rubble of World War Two, the objective has been to unite Europe's nations economically and politically to prevent a return to conflict.

Through waves of expansion, including the addition of 11 east European states since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the union has grown to 28 countries comprising 500 million...