欧盟峰会将于1月30日召开，在此前夕，意大利新总理马里奥?蒙蒂将访问德国总理安格拉?默克尔和法国总统尼古拉?萨科齐。此前，他还于1月18日访问了英国首相戴维?卡梅隆。欧盟理事会常任主席赫尔曼?范龙佩也将在罗马与其会面。此外，法、德、意三国领导人还计划在峰会召开前举行一次预会。

　　It is a far cry from most of the second half of last year, when Europe’s leaders did as much as they could to avoid being caught in a photograph with Mr Monti’s scandal-tainted predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi. Italy, it seems fair to say, is back at the top table. And that could have far-reaching effects on the euro crisis. For, as he is making increasingly plain, Mr Monti’s ideas on how to resolve it are significantly at odds with those of the Germans who have until now been doing most of the ordering—and choosing pretty thin gruel.

　　这可真与去年下半年的情况大不相同，那时，欧洲各国领导人竭力避免与丑闻缠身的西尔维奥?贝卢斯科尼（蒙蒂的前任）同台亮相。而现在，似乎是时候说，意大利又重回贵宾席了。这可能对欧元危机产生深远的影响，因为蒙蒂正愈发清晰地表明在如何解决危机的问题上他与那些德国人的想法大不相同——到目前为止，德国主要是作为发号施令者（此前德国一直认为只有欧元区各国统一标准、严守财政纪律，才能克服欧元区管理存在的结构性缺陷——译注），却没有给出什么有效的解决措施。

　　“Adherence to fiscal discipline is a necessary condition for growth,” he told an audience at the London Stock Exchange on January 18th. “It is not however a sufficient condition.” His message to Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy is that the EU must move from reliance only on austerity towards some growth-stimulating measures. This was a view repeated by Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency that downgraded nine euro-zone countries, including Italy, on January 13th. Unlike his colleague from France, also downgraded, and the European Commission, Mr Monti did not criticise S&P: indeed, he shared much of its analysis.

　　1月18日，蒙蒂在伦敦证券交易所对一名在场观众说道：“遵守财政纪律是保证经济增长的必要条件，然而，只有这一个条件是不够的。”他将向默克尔和萨科齐表示，欧盟不能再仅仅依赖于紧缩方案，而应采取一些刺激增长的措施。而这正是标准普尔反复提到的观点一致——标普是一家评级机构，它在1月13日下调了包括意大利在内的9个欧元区国家的信用等级。与欧盟委员会以及同样被降级的法国同僚不同，蒙蒂并未指责标普：事实上，他认同很多标普所做的分析。

　　Mr Monti, who served as the EU’s commissioner for the single market and then competition between 1995 and 2004, is a rare creature: an Italian economic liberal. He is not a proponent of harrying Berlin to reflate to boost domestic consumption. But he would like to see the Germans do more to liberalise their own services, to bolster the EU’s single market (indeed, he wrote a report for the commission in May 2010 advocating further liberalisation).

　　蒙蒂在1995年到2004年间曾先后担任欧盟内部市场专员和竞争委员会专员，他是一名罕见的意大利经济自由主义者。他并不提倡迫使德国政府再度采用通货膨胀的方式来拉动内需，却想要看到德国努力使其市场自由化，以促进欧盟统一市场的发展。（其实，他在2010年5月就写了一份报告给欧盟委员会来提倡进一步的自由化）。

　　In London this week Mr Monti pledged to back a British effort to complete the single market, and thus to improve competitiveness throughout the EU. Although he believes it is unrealistic to expect Mr Cameron to go back on his refusal in December to sign up to the proposed fiscal compact between EU members, he is keen to involve the British as much as possible.

　　本周蒙蒂在伦敦承诺将支持英国为构建完整的统一市场所做的努力，从而全面提高欧盟的竞争力。卡梅隆曾在12月份拒绝签署欧盟成员国之间的财政条约。虽然蒙蒂觉得，要想让卡梅隆改变主意，恐怕不太现实，但他热切期望英国能够尽可能多地参与进来。

　　Speaking before his visit to London, in his office in Palazzo Chigi in Rome, Mr Monti says: “The more the UK feels distanced from European construction, the less others are able to benefit from the full influence of the many good things that the UK can help us all to achieve, and therefore there are many areas where I think it would be beneficial to have the UK fully at the table.”

　　出访伦敦之前，在坐落于罗马基奇宫的总理办公室中，蒙蒂说道：“英国可以帮助我们各国达成许多具有全面影响的积极措施，而英国越是被排除在欧洲市场建设之外，其他国家能够从中得到的利益也就越少，因此，我认为英国的全面参与会使我们在诸多领域获益。”