That is all the more true because the Brussels summit flung open the door to a fiscal union for the EU-17+. If a new treaty is negotiated by March 2012 and ratified in the following months, the EU will have taken a remarkable step forward – indeed, only one step away from a real political union, which will have to follow if Europe is to end the crisis for good.
而这一切也逐渐成为现实，因为布鲁塞尔峰会已经为在欧盟17+基础上建立财政联盟的打开了缺口。如果一个新协议能在2012年3月订下并在随后几个月得到各国政府批准，那么欧盟就将实现重大跃进——事实上距离真正的政治联盟只有一步之遥，而如果欧盟想要一劳永逸地结束当前这场危机的话，就必定要走出后面那一步。