The origins of the challenge are the crisis in the eurozone, the catastrophic loss of market confidence in the debts of European nations that has raised doubts about the single greatest achievement of the EU, the single currency. Since its inception, the European project has been based on a partnership between France and Germany, the two old enemies “shaking hands over the graves of Verdun” as a Frankfurt newspaper once put it. This has never been a partnership of equals: Germany’s economic heft has always exceeded that of France, but France has compensated with more assertive diplomacy. That formula worked for ... (full story)