Take a deep breath. Here is a mad proposition: Europe is about to save the euro. Don’t bet the bank on it. European leaders have shown an unmatched talent for messing things up. But there has been a change in the political dynamics of the continent’s sovereign debt crisis. This time policymakers might just get it right.

Before such thoughts are dismissed as the Panglossian daydreaming of someone who thinks that it is really quite important to rescue European integration, I am happy to concede the case against.

At every turn the story so far has been one of hopes raised and dashed. Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and the rest have gone into summits promising to get ahead of the financial markets. They have emerged with packages as halfhearted as they have been half-baked. After a short respite, during which investors and bond traders gave them the benefit of the doubt, the crisis has returned with the fears of the markets redoubled.