Introduction: Once More unto the Breaches

Abstract

Weakened by a decade of economic crisis and shaken by the awakening of populism, the European project actually faces four disintegrations: the Brexit, democratic disaffection, monetary and financial fragmentation, and territorial dislocation. If European Union member states want to escape those looming risks, they must, as they always have in the last five decades, reinvent Europe in order to save it. Twenty years after the completion of monetary union, the European project needs new positive narratives to survive. This reinvention should start by a re-visitation: how was the euro actually achieved? What are today its biggest challenges? How can it inspire future European endeavors?