The relentless, obsessive refrain, even in those places where the fate of the European project is being played out – or commented upon – demands that nothing that is of any consequence for the European Union can be decided, or even considered, without the German and French leaders having first been provided with full democratic legitimacy for the next four or five years. As Jan Kordys recently reported, the former president of the Italian Council Enrico Letta has acknowledged that it...