Little to look forward to for EU in 2013

The year 2012 has come to an end, and with it comes a bitter realization. No matter how much help is given to ailing countries like Greece, however large the bailouts they receive, the fundamental problems of the monetary union will not have been solved.

The economic gulf between member countries of the EU remains too large.

Could it be that the euro, the tremendous prestige project of European integration, is inherently flawed? None less than Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, has acknowledged that the currency union, in its current form, "isn't sustainable without taking further steps."

Chancellor Angela Merkel described as a "foundational error" in the euro that the single currency has not yet led to economic convergence between member countries.
The EU would like to change that. At the most recent summit in December, Merkel drove the point home. "I believe that the member states, but also the EU as a whole, are ready to push profound changes through."

Read more: Little to look forward to for EU in 2013 | Europe | DW.DE | 31.12.2012