The European Union in Times of Crisis: Internal Challenges and a Changing Global Order

Since 2009, the EU appears to be operating in a context of permanent crises. Internally, it is grappling with the crisis of the Eurozone and economic governance, the migration crisis, the negotiations surrounding Brexit, and a creeping but no less dangerous challenge to democracy as the core of the Union’s shared values. The manifestations of these crises have been so prolonged and recurring that they raise the question whether they represent systemic flaws that call into question the long-term prospects of European integration. This question has been posed with relation to European economic and eurozone governance, but is equally relevant when it comes to Eurosceptic trends among EU citizens and the rise of populist and nationalist governments that explicitly challenge core institutions and values of the Union. Brexit negotiations and the enduring difficulties in finding a workable form of future cooperation with the UK after the deadline for leaving the Union further illustrate how some of the core tenets of the EU’s order, including the free movement of people in the internal market, are coming under pressure. At the same time, the EU faces a multitude of external challenges. These range from the strained transatlantic relationship due to the increasingly isolationist stance of the United States, the rise of a stronger China, and an increasingly assertive Russia. The EU’s ability to bring positive change to its neighbourhood is challenged by the enduring instability and outright political crises in the countries of the Eastern Partnership and those that experienced the Arab Spring. These multiple crises challenge the EU’s emphasis on soft power as its privileged mode of engagement with third countries and risk fostering ever deeper Euroscepticism among the EU’s citizens.