Europe's union in crisis : tested and contested (introduction)

Abstract

Europe’s Union faces a set of inter-related crises that it struggles to contain and address. This special issue seeks to explore how the Union is tested through crises but also faces greater contestation. The dual emphasis on testing and contesting allows us to focus on how the EU addresses crises but also faces explicit contestation in troubled times. Since 2008 the Union and its member states have confronted two major exogenous shocks. These shocks in turn led to internal turbulence within the Union. The first exogenous shock was the global impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers which triggered a deep financial and economic downturn, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Great Recession had a severe impact on the European Union as the global financial crisis morphed into a deep crisis of the eurozone in autumn 2009. The credibility and sustainability of the eurozone was tested.