He does not believe that the current European policy - the Berlin-Brussels austerity strategy - is correct.
Berlin and Brussels - the architects of this policy - see no need to change course.
There is sensitivity to outside interference, with Mr Rajoy saying that European leaders should be elected by their own people, not hand-picked by Brussels or Berlin.
He followed the Berlin-Brussels script, combining austerity with reforms.
Well it's doubtful that France, with its strong Gaullist traditions, will ever surrender sufficient control over budget-making to a centralised extra-territorial authority (Brussels or Berlin, depending on where you think the power would in practice reside).
All the same, if there are substantial and eye-catching changes to the convention text, or if (as seems quite likely) the inter-governmental conference simply fails to reach agreement on time next month, there will be much hand-wringing in Brussels, Paris and Berlin.
Perhaps it's better to recognize that most solutions to America's problems--now and in the future--will be concocted not in Brussels, Berlin or Paris, but at home.
In other words, if Berlin wants to pass decision-making power to Brussels, it has to do so by passing a law in the lower house of the German parliament and having it approved in the upper house.
In this view, common in Paris, Berlin and Brussels, the crisis may have a beneficial side-effect if it makes America seek more equal relations with its European allies.
The IMF chief was due to discuss the matter with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on May 15, and with euro-zone finance ministers in Brussels the next day.
WSJ: European Disunion: Dithering at the Top Turned EU Crisis to Global Threat
Indeed, Mr Sarkozy seems ready to rip up much that is valuable in the EU. Mr Hollande, for his part, is discreetly telling Brussels and Berlin that he does not question fiscal discipline, but rather wants to complement it with growth-promoting measures.
From the perspective of Brussels and Berlin, maddening though Athens may be, there is no alternative but to double down on Greece -- because a Greek exit would have huge ripple effects through all the Mediterranean economies (and their banking systems).
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