Simon Tisdall

Europe is in trouble. Multiple, long-simmering external and internal challenges are coming to the boil. Taken together, they comprise the modern EU’s biggest existential test since its creation in the early 1990s. But strong, united leadership is lacking. Questioning Europe’s will to survive, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, warned last week of a “ spiritual crisis”, of a “palpable mood of uncertainty, of loss”. The EU’s borders, democracies, laws and liberties are threatened by an aggressive Russian nihilism. Relations with the US, transatlantic blood brother and key Nato partner, are coming under unprecedented strain. China, an expansionist, authoritarian superpower, circles like a predatory foe. The economies of leading countries, notably Germany, are contracting or stagnating. The EU as a whole lacks competitiveness and capital investment, amid high levels of debt…