Leaderless Europe

From the outset, the European Community was intended to be leaderless because of the attachment of most of the elites and mass populations to national sovereignty.European integration has nevertheless advanced first thanks to the European Commission, then by an increasingly assertive European Council and Council of Ministers. The limitations, especially in foreign and defence policy, as well as the reduced capacity of the Franco-German tandem to provide impetus and Britain's inability to join or replace them poses continuing problems of leadership. The European Court of Justice enforces agreed policies on laggard national governments, while the European Parliament acts as an ally or constraint on the Commission and the Council of Ministers. The European Union improvises incremental changes and cooperatively muddles along.