ABSTRACT
European integration is at a crossroads. As the race tO European Monetary Union (EMU) accelerates, with politicians staking their political reputations and their country’s economic prospects on making the first wave of membership, popular support has been diminishing. As unemployment continues to rise and social benefits fall, European integration no longer appears to be what was promised: a union of countries that would bring greater prosperity for all. Those most affected by the austerity measures are growing restive, evidenced in the increasing number of strikes to protest cuts in jobs and benefits, and alienated, reflected in the generalized malaise and in the rise of the extreme Right.
