Asean and the EU in Times of Crises

The 2007/8 global financial crisis (GFC) can be considered as a watershed moment for the European Union (EU) and its common currency, the Euro, bringing some of the fundamental structural deficiencies of the Eurozone architecture to the fore. In conjunction with other internal and external challenges, such as the Ukraine crisis or the Mediterranean refugee crisis, it became an existential threat to the entire Union. The decade following the GFC may be justifiably called a critical juncture for the entire European project, setting the EU on the completely new trajectory of differentiated disintegration in light of ‘Brexit.’¹