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The financial and monetary crisis of the last decade has transformed the
European Union, giving rise to centrifugal tendencies but also generating
genuine progress towards deepening the union.
Divergence between the real economies of the eurozone has increased.
Some southern European countries, in particular, continue to face serious
economic problems, and the gulf that separates them from the northern
members of the eurozone is widening. In this respect, Spain is an excep-
tion as, at least in terms of GDP growth, it has narrowed the gap.
The decline in industrial output in the south has been mirrored by an
increase in central and eastern Europe. The countries of this region have
become increasingly integrated into the value chains of major European
firms. Lower salaries and social standards have been a significant factor in
this geographical shift, which has seen central and eastern Europe accoun-
ting for a growing proportion of the EU economy.
The measures adopted to rescue the euro have led to a further deepe-
ning of the eurozone. As a result, both the interdependence of the coun-
tries of the eurozone and the prospects for resilience in the event of fur-
ther crises have increased. However, there is no sign of successful initiatives
to strengthen the social pillars of the union.
The economic and political weight of Germany have grown both as a
result of problems in the south of the eurozone and due to the United
Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU. At the same time, Germany’s trade
with fellow EU members benefits from an undervalued currency whose
value does not reflect the country’s trade surplus.
Since autumn 2015, Germany’s unilateral migration policy has created
new tensions at the heart of the European Union, exposing the latent
tension between the expectations of northern and southern states with
regard to the mutualization of risk and responsibility for the stability of the
eurozone as a whole. The German open-borders policy and the require-
ment that eastern European countries would have to abide by it have been
a focus of political disagreement between east and west, and this issue
can only be resolved by a common immigration and asylum policy.
During the economic crisis, Euroscepticism grew. However, more re-
cently – in response to foreign policy crises and the election of Trump –
Presentation