PM Rajoy on the frontline of power struggle in Brussels

Spain, France and Italy are to lead a coalition of the unwilling in an attempt to prevent Brussels from obtaining more power as the euro crisis seems to be fading into memory, a high-ranking European source has revealed. The tripartite, in conjunction with other southern European countries, wants to put the brakes on further economic integration unless they receive something in return after three-and-a-half years of belt-tightening decreed by the European Commission; a little carrot after so much stick.

On the other side of the coin is Berlin and her allies, which want the bloc's ailing economies to sign written pledges of their adherence to reform programs imposed by Brussels. These differences bubbled to the surface at the recent European Council meeting in Brussels. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that the current situation "is not satisfactory. We want a qualitative jump forward in the coordination of economic policies and we are going to pursue the labor of persuasion with vigor."

But the cracks run deeper than mere economic coordination. The Commission expressed its surprise at the "signs of fatigue on the part of some countries usually in favor of the community method," according to the same source. What Spain and its allies fear is that a recently approved project to tackle excessive deficit and macroeconomic imbalances, and other initiatives, will give EC President José Manuel Barroso and his team enormous capacity to make recommendations that will, in theory, be binding, that might result in sanctions and will reduce the measure of maneuverability of national governments. Mariano Rajoy twice expressed his objection to the idea at the summit.

"At the moment this debate is being postponed until later, partly because Brussels already has many instruments to reinforce its growing power and partly because if you talk about signing contracts you also have to talk about compensation. Several countries, and not just Spain, believe that under no circumstances can the contracts be activated without getting something in return," said a government source.