The public repudiation of the proposed European Constitution, a gut reaction felt far more widely and deeply than registered in the famous French and Dutch referenda, was a good thing – but might not remain one if the wrong lessons are drawn from it. In addition to the unpopularity of the document itself, one should consider what its adoption would have erected: a flimsy, oversized superstructure anchored to a sagging foundation. Something so claptrap would soon have collapsed, scattered debris across a continent, and brought to an end the fifty-year history of European integration. The project may yet fall apart, but should not be allowed simply to disintegrate. It should be revived. Although an unreformed Europe will not likely to revert to the chronic internecine warfare that made a nightmare of the first half of the century, it will be enfeebled, demoralized, and at the mercy of giant non-European superpowers. This is nothing to wish for: decline is not desirable, and decadence anything but a happy ending.

Before giving up on the European Union (EU), the citizens of the member states should try to reconfigure it. The responsibility is theirs and inescapable. Structural breakdown is a harsh reality: the Brussels institutions no longer work and, in their present form, cannot be made to work. No member state or group of member states, moreover, has both the strength and the desire to lead, nor is this possible in the teeth of public opposition.