ABSTRACT
More than 60 years after its foundation, the European Union (EU) seems to be in turmoil. The controversial handling of sovereign debt in the Euro framework triggered by the financial crisis in 2008, the failure to find common responses to the massive influx of refugees in 2015, and the popular vote for a Brexit in 2016 strongly challenge the idea that political cooperation in Europe is universally beneficial and stable. These events thus present veritable crises for the continued process of European integration: they highlight that the transfer of formerly national political competences to intergovernmental and supranational institutions in Europe has limits.
