Fragmenation nears! Der Spiegel searches for some truth behind EFSF rumours.

The latest Der Spiegel article seeking to throw some light on what the EFSF is likely to become offers little information, other perhaps than that ahead of tomorrow's Bundestag vote noobody is prepared to say anything useful. Read it here, the following are the concluding paragraphs:

Clarity on the euro zone's plans is not likely to come soon, despite a Wednesday warning from European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet that "now is the time for effective action, implementation, verbal discipline and a stronger team spirit." Several more member states must still approve the EFSF and the process isn't expected to be completed until the second half of October.
And once it is, there are, it would seem, several more questions to be addressed. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hinted as much during his state of the union speech on Wednesday morning.
"If we do not move forward with more unification, we will suffer more fragmentation," he said in Brussels. "I think this is going to be a baptism of fire for a whole generation."

Fragmentation, there's that word, used often on this blog to describe what will inevitably be the follow-up to the EU, read here. Do not imagine for one moment that after this monumental failure, countries will quietly and automatically slip back behind their pre-Common Market borders, the mess unleashed is far too severe for that kind of simplicity - fragmenation has always been the risk, it is a pity the federalists would not accept repeated warnings as issued from these pages and elsewhere down the years.