It's the Job Stupid; Europe: The power of its capital is slipping, but that doesn't mean the continent can't exercise global leadership.

Byline: Andrew Moravcsik (Moravcsik directs the European Union program at Princeton University.)

Those in Brussels who dream that their new leader will be a powerful figure in the mold of Jean Monnet or Jacques Delors were thrilled, for a time, with Jose Manuel Barroso. The new president stood down the Germans and French in appointing key commissioners, and looked poised to shape the Commission, the governing cabinet of Europe, in his own way. But when his choice of a papal philosopher as commissioner of Justice and Home Affairs ran into fierce opposition and created a constitutional crisis, the Brussels cognoscenti began attacking Barroso's judgment, as they did those of his predecessors Jacques Santer and Romano Prodi.

Truth be told, the problem with recent EU presidents is not their savvy. It's the job. Since the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 set Europe on course to become a tighter political and economic union, member states led by France and Germany have, in fact, eroded the role of the Commission and its president, who used to be at the center of the EU. They have divided its powers between the Council, an assembly of national leaders that is favored by France for new EU tasks, and the Parliament, favored by Germany and others for the established ones. The Commission's role is shrinking; morale in its headquarters is sinking.

Today, effective EU leadership must come not from Brussels but from the national capitals, especially Paris, London and Berlin. And leading Europe is more difficult than ever, as the original six members have expanded to 25. The old core states, led by France and Germany, are almost alone in advocating cooperation in areas like social, fiscal and tax policy--as well as continued agricultural subsidies. Countries that joined in the 1970s and 1980s, such as Spain, Portugal and Ireland, are positively inclined toward Europe, but will soon be squabbling with the 10 new and more skeptical members to the east over the budget. Germany and Scandinavia are less willing to pay to make it work.

A second constraint is democracy. It is difficult to lead when opponents might call at any time for a referendum, which in the EU feeds angry polemics that benefit the extreme Euroskeptics. The new draft EU Constitution provides modest reforms--a little majority voting here, more parliamentary oversight there--that could have been achieved ...