So 'well' is deceit. In FT speak

Gideon Rachman blogs today about the parlous state of intra EU relations,

When the European Union works well, the co-operation of three crucial partners is vital: France, Germany and the European Commission.

he tells us. Today however all this is as dust,

Meanwhile the relationship between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy seems frosty at best. One of the few things they agree about is their mutual contempt for Barroso.

But I am particularly interested in what he thinks of as the EU working well.

It was the alliance of the Franco-German couple, allied to a powerful commission president in the shape of Jacques Delors, that led to the creation of a single European currency.

Oh right, that is the EU working well is it? Shall we ask the President of the European Council what that really means? Over to you Herman,

"Nobody ever told the proverbial man in the street that sharing a single currency was not just about making peoples' lives easier when doing business or travelling abroad, but also about being directly affected by economic developments in the neighbouring countries," he said on Tuesday evening. "Being in the 'Euro zone' means, monetarily speaking, being part of one 'Euroland'."

What was that?

Mr Van Rompuy acknowledged that "growing public awareness" of the euro zone's problems was "a major political development."

"Today, people are discovering what a 'common destiny' in monetary matters means. They are discovering that the euro affects their pensions, savings, and jobs, their very daily life. It hurts," he said.

Again?

"We are clearly confronted with a tension within the system, the ill-famous dilemma of being a monetary union and not a full-fledged economic and political union," he said. "This tension has been there since the single currency was created. However, the general public was not really made aware of it."

So in Mr Rachman's world an EU working well is one in which the citizens are kept in the dark about what is being done in their name. Glad we got that one cleared up.