Europe's Dilemma: More Integration Or Less? by Tom Gjelten

European governments seem to be having a hard time deciding whether to come together or drift apart at a time of economic uncertainty.

Years from now, historians will no doubt say this was a crisis waiting to happen. The people who came up with the idea of a eurozone stopped halfway. The participating countries would use a common currency, but they wouldn't have common tax and spending policies — a monetary union but not a fiscal union. The debt crisis has now shown governments it's hard to have it both ways.

Either they coordinate their tax and spending policies or they face a break up of their currency union. Jacob Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics says it's like the Europeans built only half a house — and half a house can't stand on its own. "Europe basically faces a choice," he said. "It can either dismantle the piece that they built earlier or they can build the other half of the house, so to speak."

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