The turmoil that has followed the ongoing global financial meltdown of 2008 onwards has cast a spotlight on the fundamental challenge at the heart of the European Union. As private sector catastrophe has spilled over into public crisis, the failure of national economies among EU member-states has crystallised the fault lines for debate: integrate or wither away. As decision-making in Berlin becomes as significant as that taking place in Brussels, the project of European integration risks stalling in the face of a crisis it is ill-equipped to solve. In the search to define a more coherent and efficient role for itself in the changing global strategic environment, the EU’s capacity to move forward on the back of effective reform is of pivotal interest in international affairs.