When the global financial crisis broke at the end of 2008, Europe’s leaders complacently maintained that the problem was an Anglo-Saxon one. Now, with trillions potentially having to be poured into national economies too big to fail – Greece, Ireland, Portugal, even Italy and Spain – the eurocrisis is threatening to overshadow the original banking collapse of 2008.

Brought on by the global economic recession, the eurocrisis has been exacerbated by serious faults built into the institutional structure of the monetary union. The non-existence of centralized political control over the European economy combined with lack of democratic legitimacy sets in motion processes that are undermining European solidarity.

In a new Eurozine focal point, published in cooperation with the Allianz Kulturstiftung, contributors discuss whether the EU is not only broke, but also broken – and if so, whether Europe’s leaders are up to the task of fixing it.