The EU celebrated the 60th anniversary of its founding Rome treaty this year with a summit of the continent’s leaders in Italy.
Some six decades after that landmark document of European unity was signed, the union is facing one of its worst-ever setbacks with the UK’s planned triggering on March 29 of Article 50,
commencing formal exit negotiations between London, Brussels and the governments of the remaining 27 states.
These range from internal pressures, such as the ongoing danger of Greece needing to leave the Eurozone,
to external threats like an emboldened Russia, which recently commemorated the third anniversary of its annexation of Crimea.
In this context, the ambition of the Rome event, in the words of European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker,
is to see “the remaining member states fall in love with each other again and renew their vows with the EU.” While this is a big stretch, the summit will come as a morale booster to the union.
The timeline for finalising decisions potentially extends from now until June 2019, when the United Kingdom could have left the EU, and the next slate of European Parliament elections are scheduled/
Is It Possible?
Perhaps inevitably, the worst-case scenario of the bloc imploding is not included in the five futures for the EU. Nonetheless, given the build-up of challenges now facing the union—both Brexit and beyond—this outcome is being reluctantly contemplated across the continent.
As European Council President Donald Tusk said last month, the threats facing the bloc are now “more dangerous than ever” and could yet grow worse through either internal and/ or external pressures intensifying in 2017 or beyond.
And the question that I make is!
Will the EU survive in the next 10 years?
