The next two weeks will be critical for theEU's future withGermanytaking a pivotal role and here's why:Germanymay be the euro zone'seconomic power houses, pockets are deep. But they are fraying.Germany's centralbank, the Bundes bank, is already on the hook for at least 800 billion dollarsof peripheral country debt. And that's about a quarter of German GDP. Thiscan't just be about Germany bank-rolling bailouts. Everyone is saying they needa deeper, more integrated EU. Everyone of course, except for Europeanpoliticians.

Now the marriage analogy here might becliché but it so aptly describes the EU: married, in name only. They have yetto consummate this thing. Now what would that take will first, politically,they would have to take a big step to smooth out the economic bumps in weakercountries like Greece, Spain and Portugal. They are nursing recessions, highunemployment, and some are now suggesting that austerity has actually beenself-defeating and responsible for triggering those recessions. Now that wouldmean committing to a more federal system, that in an orderly way makes transferpayments, a lot of those transfer payments coming from countries like Germany, thosetransfer payments going from strong countries to weaker ones whenevernecessary. This may seem likeGermanyis committing to the footing the bill, with absolutely no payback, but the riskof contagion is real and here is why this is just one measure: if Spanish banksfail, German Banks remain the most exposed. I mean look at this:Germanytakingon 10%. The pressure forGermanyand others to fully commit to Europe in everyway is strong and blunt and many like hedge fund billionaire George Soros aresaying: Look! This is the warning you have little time and little room fordebate now.

Paula, CNN, London.