EU Draws Up Plans for Single 'Economic Government' to Prevent Crisis
THE TELEGRAPH: Germany and France have tabled controversial plans to create an "economic government of the European Union" to police financial policy across the continent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels. Photo: The Telegraph
They have put Herman Van Rompuy, the EU President, in charge of a special task force to examine "all options possible" to prevent another crisis like the one caused by the Greek meltdown.

His mission will be to draw up a master-plan for the best way to oversee and enforce economic targets set in Brussels as a key part of a bail-out package for Greece.

The options he will consider include the creation of an "economic government" by the by the end of the year.

"We commit to promote a strong co-ordination of economic policies in Europe," said a draft text expected to be agreed by EU leaders last night.

"We consider that the European Council should become the economic government of the EU and we propose to increase its role in economic surveillance and the definition of the EU's growth strategy."

Gordon Brown was last night examining the wording of the statement to see whether it was restricted to eurozone members or has possible implications for British economic sovereignty.

Officials are concerned that the language calling for an "economic government" could be another attempt at a power-grab in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty. >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Thursday, March 25, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: EU backtracks on 'economic government plan': The European Union has backtracked on plans to create an "economic government of the European Union" following protests from Britain. >>> | Friday, March 26, 2010

In Government, Small Used to Be Beautiful
THE TELEGRAPH: Anyone familiar with the way government used to operate a century ago cannot but be struck by the disparity with the way in which it operates now. Then, governments were small entities of a dozen or so cabinet ministers, matched by similar numbers of under-secretaries and ministers of state outside the cabinet. An empire on which the sun never set was ruled by roughly the same number of civil servants as are now to be found in the average department of state.

Now, about a third of the governing party in the House of Commons will have a salaried or unsalaried post that binds each individual to the collective line. There are nearly two dozen ministers in the cabinet. The civil service numbers well over half a million. Why has all this happened?

It has happened because, in short, governments now choose to do something that governments then sought to avoid as far as possible. They intervene. Indeed, it often seems that their raison d’etre is not merely as it once was - to do the minimum necessary to maintain a civilised polity - but to do the maximum possible and to put the proverbial finger in every pie. Small used to be beautiful. It isn’t now. In government, small used to be beautiful >>> By Simon Heffer

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