The global financial crisis and the public debt crisis in Europe is fast becoming a crisis of the nation state and a crisis of the EU. With stagnating economies, a period of austerity and uncertainty looms over the EU. There has been a growing polarisation, both between member states, and within society. The structural features and development of Europe are now being contested more than ever, while counter-hegemonic forces and political counter currents within the EU have begun to surface with their struggle against neoliberal austerity, and alternative ways to find solutions to shared problems. European unity is at risk, and gaining further support for Europe is difficult in a time without visionary leaders, and because many member states are unsure and unwilling to commit to the future. The political and economic crisis in the EU has revealed that integration and the normalisation of patterns of interaction among actors is not predetermined and can stop or even reverse. European social space is evolving, being structured by sentiment towards integration as large, transnational protest movements demand another kind of Europe, and member states reconsider their commitment to the European project. A failure to situate European integration in the context of globalisation and global political economy has left many questions unanswered regarding its future in the wake of Europe’s current crisis. However, this paper will thus look at the EU in relation to international currents to consider how post-functional and neo-Gramscian approaches to European integration can help explain the current state of the EU, and its future in an emerging political landscape that is moving beyond left-right politics in a post-Fordist, post-national union to see if there is any reason to be optimistic about the EU’s future.
