EU's new foreign-policy chief, will also be put in charge of the ten-nation Western European Union, a weak but explicitly military organisation which the larger body is now expected to swallow up, though this raises awkward questions about countries more involved with one than the other.

ECONOMIST: The EU turns its attention from ploughshares to swords

The receding breakup fear also hit momentum among governments to correct the flaws in the euro zone's makeup, slowing the push to complete a euro-zone "banking union" and to cut the links between governments with weak finances and feeble banks, which was undermining confidence in both.

WSJ: Italian Uncertainty Rekindles Euro-Crisis Fears

But this is exactly the question the Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, is having to fight over today, as are the European Union leaders, the Greek centre-right opposition and (in a weak echo) UK Chancellor George Osborne and his shadow Ed Balls.

BBC: Greece: How do you save an economy from going bust?