One of the obsessions with the EU’s leadership is that the bloc should catch up with the US economically. That’s a perfectly respectable aim, but the composition of a new “high level” group formed by Brussels to help that process along, suggests that this might take a while. The 13-person team is made up of representatives of, dread word, ’stakeholders’ (defined as trade unions, business, political authorities, academics),” a stale corporatist concept that tells you that it is doomed to failure before it has even begun. Its membership comprises four politicians, one journalist (our old friend, Will Hutton, naturally), two academics, three trade unionists and, in a nod to the capitalism it is meant to be promoting, three (count ‘em) businessmen.

America can, I think, relax for now.