In a time when our Western Free Democracies in the eyes of an ever greater number of citizens loose acceptance Ralph T. Niemeyer raises the question whether it is not our political system but rather the underlying economic model that is to be blamed for the waning public support for EU institutions which according to the author overreact by a nervous over-kill when trying to impose a rigid system sacrificing civil rights, social protection and cultural diversity on the altar of the Lisbon - treaty. But, the book does not fall short from indicating where the alternatives would lay and how easy these could be applied if only a majority of the political class were ready for it. Like in good parliamentary tradition, Ralph T. Niemeyer proposes to install a Shadow Commission for Europe giving the real opposition a structure and the European citizens a voice existing EU institutions have failed to provide for.