The European "sovereignty paradox" may be summarized as follows: National States and/or the European Parliament, that are the instances in which resides the democratic legitimacy to implement policies and to react to events affecting the economy, are not endowed with the instruments to act or react. The authorities that are actually empowered to act (as the ECB for monetary policy, or the European Commission for fiscal and competition policy), on the other hand, lack the legitimacy needed to use their power to implement policy. Thus we have on one side legitimacy without power, and on the other power without legitimacy (...).
