With Cyprus, the euro crisis has claimed its fifth victim: after Ireland, Portugal Greece and Spain, it is the Mediterranean island's turn to request a bailout from the troika of international funding agencies (EU, ECB and IMF).

Since the election of David Cameron in 2010, eurosceptics in the Conservative Party and the media appear to be more influential than ever. They are demanding the "repatriation of powers from Brussels to Westminster," and, even more critically, the organisation of a referendum on relations between the UK and the EU. At the same time, with his refusal to sign the European budgetary treaty and his threat to veto the EU budget, the British prime minister has undermined relations with other European leaders. The UK and the EU have reached a critical juncture in their common story. Will they succeed in establishing a new equilibrium, or are we about to see a "Brexit" (a British exit from the EU)?

In the current period of economic crisis and amid fears about the future of the euro, Germany is the EU's dominant member state - but a reluctant one. As Chancellor Angela Merkel attempts to persuade her EU partners to practice budgetary austerity, she is criticised on all side for her lack of solidarity, even engagement, towards the union. Whatever the case, Germany and Europe is no easy relationship.

The financial, economic and social crisis, which has raged in Greece since the autumn of 2009, is without a doubt the worst upheaval to affect Europe since the end of the Second World War. Not only has it undermined the destiny of a country which is now being forced to make enormous sacrifices, but it also threatens to compromise the future of the single currency and the European project.

Sixty years after the Robert Schuman declaration, which established the foundation for Europe, the EU and one of its main achievements, the euro, are in the throes of a severe crisis. In the context of a European project which appears to be increasingly at risk, several European intellectuals wonder about the future of the Union.

2012: The eurozone has been in crisis for two years and still no solution seems in sight. European leaders are wrestling with the right balance between austerity and growth, while the idea of ​​political union comes to centre stage.

Austerity measures of governments new and old have not been enough to avoid the aftermath of the collapse of the Spanish housing bubble. To save its banks, Madrid had to ask for help from Europe, which fears that the rescue could sink an already weakened euro.

Ever since his return to power in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has pursued what that he terms a "national revolution" — a programme that includes tighter control of legislative, judicial and economic powers, measures to rein in the media and a nationalist discourse. It is a policy that has prompted concern in Europe, but which has yet to solicit a clear response from the EU.

Autumn 2011: After the "last chance summit" of July 21, the single currency is still in danger of implosion. The debt crisis, that has extended from Greece to Italy and beyond, is now beginning to eat at the eurozone's very core. Faced with implacable market pressure, Germany seeks to impose fiscal discipline, but is increasingly viewed with suspicion by its partners.

Spring 2010 to Summer 2011: the eurozone crisis is more than one year old and seems to get worse if each new bailout package, amidst concerns about the most fragile countries and ongoing onslaughts from the financial markets. Faced with the gravity of such problems, the political response has been halting, raising many questions about the future of the EU.

Faced with economic crisis, several eurozone countries have accumulated debt while increasing public spending, thus diverging from the Maastricht criteria. Some, like Greece, have teetered on the brink of default, putting pressure on the single European currency.

While the Arab world is shaken by a surge for freedom from its long repressed youth, Europe seems unable to take the initiative and assume the role its position and its history require of it.

Presseurop invited a selection of ten European authors and analysts, including well-known writers and new voices, to write about their vision of Europe, and their understanding of how ongoing events will affect their lives and the future of all European citizens.

To speak with a single voice. The European Union’s long-standing ambition was supposed to be realised with the creation of the post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and the launch of the European External Action Service. In a global environment which calls into question the role played by European powers in international affairs, Europe will need to exercise caution in the use that it makes of its new diplomatic service — a challenge that plays a key role in the debates documented by this briefing.

Laid low by the collapse of its banking system, the bursting of its real estate bubble and the weight of its public debt, Ireland is on the brink. Faced with the risk of contagion to the weaker members of the Eurozone, with Portugal first in line, the EU27 are desperately seeking a solution.

Following the French government's decision in July to dismantle illegal Roma camps and to repatriate members of this community to Bulgaria and Romania, reactions across Europe have been numerous and often virulent. Factors like racism, security, minority rights, integration, the moral values of the EU, and even the use of European subsidies, all play a part in the debate. One thing is certain - measures taken to satisfy a domestic audience have pitched France against the European Commission and Parliament.

They number between 4 and 12 million, and have lived in Europe for centuries — in many ways the Roma are Europe's 28th state. Whatever they are called — gypsies, gitans, tziganes, sinti or manouches — they are a "problem" no government has succeeded in tackling: always among the poorest and most illiterate, yet the first to be made scapegoats by politicians on the make.

Populist, xenophobic and nationalist movements are gaining ground in several European countries. While in the west, they target multiculturalism and, more particularly, Islam, in the east they seek to emulate the fascist movements of the 20th century.

Whether as candidates or on the way to being so, the Balkan states of Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo, are all actively seeking membership of the European Union. Although they have initiated a process of political and economic reform, the path to membership is far from smooth and strewn with obstacles - notably lingering corruption, inward-looking nationalist tendencies, and Brussels' reluctance to commit.

Representatives of the world's governments will shortly arrive in Copenhagen to attempt to reach agreement on the reduction of emissions which contribute to global warming. The European Union aims to play a major role at the climate conference, to be held from the 7th to the 18th of December, which will focus on a wide range of issues from renewable energies to aid for developing countries. Unfortunately, the commitment of some of the world's major political and economic players remains in doubt. Here's an inventory of what's on the table at COP15.

A streamlined version of the constitutional treaty rejected by the French and the Dutch in 2005, the Lisbon Treaty’s stated aim is to facilitate the workings of the Union of 27 members and upwards. After a rocky road to ratification, it finally came into force on 1 December 2009. With it, a new Europe has been born, and not without difficulties, as this series of articles demonstrate.

Confronted by the most serious post-war financial crisis, the European Union is dealing with the problem in a more or less co-ordinated way. Affected to different degrees, members states are seeking solutions that will enable them to restart growth without having to sacrifice completely their national models.

Protests, round-tables, revolutions: in 1989, Eastern Europe ousted the communist regimes which had ruled since the Second World War ended, and brought down the iron curtain. From Warsaw to Bucharest, including Prague and Budapest, people discovered a new way of life: democracy, travel, capitalism and freedom of choice, but unemployment, corruption, and immigration as well. Twenty years down the road, although they are now members of the European Union and NATO, the transition is still incomplete.

Since the presidential elections of June 13, 2009, supporters of the reformist candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, who dispute the re-election of conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have defied the Islamic regime in the streets and on the web. As repression and censorship take hold of Iran, Europe, which has long played the role of mediator between Teheran and the United States, is having trouble making its intentions clear.

On 4-7 June 2009, 380 million voters chose their representatives in the European Parliament. What did the press have to say about the largest transnational election ever organised?