Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission, wants to further grease the slippery slope to a European superstate: National veto on EU changes must go. It should be obvious that to the extent EU governing structures emancipate themselves from control by member states the elites that dominate them will become answerable to no-one but themselves. From Prodi’s point of view that would be a good thing, of course. Among other things, it would help make irrelevant annoying criticism over corruption, and facilitate attempts to keep such issues from arising at all. That’s not a minor thing—serious corruption is inevitable in irresponsible institutions that abolish natural principles of loyalty, and if the EU is to maintain the prestige it needs to govern it’s going to have to keep it quiet somehow.