Will the European Union make it? The question would have sounded strange not long ago. Now even the project’s greatest cheerleaders talk of a continent facing a “Bermuda triangle” of debt, population decline and lower growth.

    As well as those chronic problems, the EU faces an acute crisis in its economic core, the 16 countries that use the single currency. Markets have lost faith that the euro zone’s economies, weaker or stronger, will one day converge thanks to the discipline of sharing a single currency, which denies uncompetitive members the quick fix of devaluation.

    Yet the debate about how to save Europe’s single currency from disintegration is stuck. It is stuck because the euro zone’s dominant powers, France and Germany, agree on the need for greater harmonisation within the euro zone, but disagree about what to harmonise.

    Germany thinks the euro must be saved by stricter rules on borrowing, spending and competitiveness, backed by quasi-automatic sanctions for governments that do not obey. These might include threats to freeze EU funds for poorer regions and EU mega-projects, and even the suspension of a country’s voting rights in EU ministerial councils. It insists that economic co-ordination should involve all 27 members of the EU club, among whom there is a small majority for free-market liberalism and economic rigour; in the inner core alone, Germany fears, a small majority favour French interference.

    A “southern” camp headed by French wants something different: “European economic government” within an inner core of euro-zone members. Translated, that means politicians intervening in monetary policy and a system of redistribution from richer to poorer members, via cheaper borrowing for governments through common Eurobonds or complete fiscal transfers. Finally, figures close to the France government have murmured, euro-zone members should agree to some fiscal and social harmonisation: e.g., curbing competition in corporate-tax rates or labor costs.

    It is too soon to write off the EU. It remains the world’s largest trading block. At its best, the European project is remarkably liberal: built around a single market of 27 rich and poor countries, its internal borders are far more open to goods, capital and labour than any comparable trading area. It is an ambitious attempt to blunt the sharpest edges of globalisation, and make capitalism benign.

答案精析：根据关键词single currency, stuck和dominant powers定位到第三段。第三段第一句指出关于如何拯救统一货币免于分崩离析的讨论陷入僵局。第二句指出原因：两大主导力量——法国和德国——都同意要协调欧元区，但没能就协调的具体内容达成一致，其中disagree about what to harmonise（不同意具体协调的内容）和C项fail to reach an agreement on harmonisation（未能就协调协议达成一致）为同义替换，所以C正确。

错项排除：A项的leading position在原文中没有出现过，所以A排除。B项的crises出现在第一段，但原文的危机由欧盟所共有，而不只是dominant powers所拥有。D项的towards disintegration表示该政策已经开始瓦解，但原文的表述是save... from disintegration，指正在努力挽救，阻止瓦解，没有提及是否正处于瓦解状态，因此排除。