LONDON -- The idea that the European Union should be run and managed by a hard core of countries, meaning France, Germany and -- if it can be coaxed along as well -- Britain, is once again doing the rounds.
In one sense this is an old notion, much favored by German politicians, that Europe needed strong leadership and that if the inner group of states got together then the rest would coalesce around it, the whole edifice being crowned with European political and monetary union.
But in another sense it is the latest reflection of the exasperation that supporters of deeper EU integration feel about the way things are going. The attempt to design a single constitution embracing all 25 members of the enlarged union (with more to come) has clearly stalled.