Economic decline saps European Union optimism

Analysis feature. The more Europe pursues the goals of closer internal integration and greater external influence, the more elusive the destinations appear. A decade that began in 2000 with optimistic plans to write a constitution for the European Union and turn the bloc into the world’s most competitive economy is ending with the continent struggling to avoid relative political and economic decline.

BBC News, 24.12.09: Europe: My picks for 2010 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/2009/12/europe_my_picks_for_2010.html

---