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When you stroll through the streets and squares of Brussels and sip your petit café with the people working inside Berlaymont, you get the impression that the former self-assuredness of some EU officials is giving way to a more reflective and self-critical attitude. “Maybe the dramatic crisis of the EU could have been avoided,” these people are starting to think, “if we had not pushed ahead with European integration at any price”. In light of this remarkable change, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer’s recent proposals on how to solve the Euro crisis seem to be pretty much out of touch with both political reality and the street.

Fischer argues that “the euro – and with it the EU as a whole – will not survive without greater European political unification”. Excuse us? The political integration within the EU has reached a level where it is almost impossible for Berlin, Paris or Rome to act unilaterally. National heads of government and their ministers spend endless hours in council meetings with their EU peers, in windowless conference rooms, with unsatisfactory outcomes most of the time. Between 70 and 80 percent of our legislation is already being shaped in Brussels, with considerable impact: the European banking system, for example, will be regulated by Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier, or it will not be efficiently regulated at all. The EU has achieved an influence on our daily lives which many people (and businesses) find hard to digest.

Against this background, Mr. Fischer’s call for an even closer political union largely neglects the fact that EU citizens are simply not ready for such a leap. Look at the nationalist True Finns in Finland, the Danes closing their borders, the new rise of the right-wing FPÖ in Austria or the popularity of Marine Le Pen in France. But even in Germany a growing EU-skepticism is taking root in at least two parties, namely the Christian Social Union and, to some extent, the Free Democrats – both members of Angela Merkel’s governing coalition. In such a volatile environment, calling for more political integration while assuming that “the rich economies – first and foremost Germany – will have to pay for the way out” of the current European dilemma carries the risk of nothing less than a public upheaval. We wonder how Mr. Fischer can accept such a scenario.

In our eyes, the urgent task of EU leaders is not further integration but smarter explanation. Rather than forcing EU citizens into an ever closer union, European Commission President Barroso and his colleagues, Herman van Rompuy and Jean-Claude Juncker along with the 27 heads of government, will have to find new ways of reestablishing trust and understanding between the political elites, on one hand, and hundreds of millions of EU citizens on the other. A crucial element of this strategy will be to return to the language of truth: Yes, Greece is bankrupt. Yes, we never should have allowed Greece to enter the eurozone. Yes, the Greek dept has to be restructured as soon as possible with private banks assuming their part of the burden. Yes, the European Central Bank committed an unforgivable mistake in taking Greek and Portuguese bonds on its own books. Yes, it remains unfeasible to synchronize fiscal policies in the northern part of the EU with those in the Mediterranean. And no, the debt crisis in several EU member states has neither been caused by “the speculation” nor by “the Anglo-Saxon rating agencies.” It has mainly been caused by record-low interest rates in the eurozone leading to excessive consumer spending in all PIGS states.

The only way to reestablish public trust in the EU and calm down financial markets will be strict fiscal austerity as a prerequisite for future sustainable growth. Meanwhile those who call for “more Europe” may order a strong coffee and think it over again.

Hans Bellstedt, owner of HBPA GmbH, a consultancy, teaches Public Affairs at the Technical University (TU) of Berlin.