This feels a little like an outrider comment, designed to get the eurozone ready for some tighter fiscal restrictions - though not necessarily a full blown centrally controlled fiscal budget with allocations to national governments. It could also be seen as an attempt to flush out countries that perhaps object to Germany's dominance over euro decisions. A democratic parliament after all will dilute the power of finance in favour of popular mandate.

Could Hollande be serious? I doubt it. There is no European political identity (Though it could be argued there were some common European Values at least). If there was then the EU parliament would have multi-national parties rather than affiliations of national parties. Instead the model of Europe is a forum for countries to represent their nation's interest no matter how mutually beneficial the outcome. There may be a chicken and egg effect here, but if even Belgium can't forge a common national identity without splitting itself up into ethnic parliaments - what hope is there for the Portuguese and the Estonians to vote for the same parties?