A multi-tier Europe? The political consequences of the euro crisis

Euro members must integrate more to save the single currency. But will a two-tier EU destroy the single market and lose the support of the people?

The November 2012 Allianz-CER forum discussed how the eurozone crisis was changing the shape of the EU. Participants took it for granted that we were already living in a multi-tier EU. They did not, however, agree on the number and nature of the emerging tiers. Some thought that the euro would be only one amongst several emerging clusters. Additional clusters would evolve around foreign policy or immigration, and they would all overlap. Other
participants, however, were convinced that the EU would fall apart into a eurozone core and an increasingly marginalised group of euro ‘outs’.