unimaginable without the single market, which ensures the continuation of peace, but we shouldn't belittle the achievement so far. The single market itself was the creation of a dedicated, one could almost say fanatical bunch of Europeans who put their dream above national aspirations. Perhaps they and their dreams were possible only because they had lived the horrors of war and its consequences; but where are they now when they are needed? The current leaders of Europe are all but invisible. They are good people, no doubt, trying hard and enduring sleepless nights, but the steam has gone out of the dream. What would Jacques Delors have said to an American Treasury Secretary who came to advise him publicly on how to reorganize the Union? No, the show is being orchestrated by national leaders. It is Messrs Sarkozy and Merkel who are organizing the next stage of the Greek drama (see, we got back there eventually), agreeing to agree on a revised bail-out plan 'by the end of the month'. Like all politicians, they are driven by domestic electoral considerations first and foremost, and in fact are widely supposed to be far from agreement on what the next stage might be for Greece. Meanwhile the 'troika' half promises another tranche of bail-out funds, Greek ministers continue bravely to promise the undeliverable, and Slovakia, one of the smallest countries in the Union, votes against the expansion of the EFSF. Needless to say, it was probably done for domestic political advantage, rather