Glorious future of unified Europe seems to have evaporated

Xenophobia and the resurgence of hard-line nationalists reflect disappointment with the unification project, and much of the blame lies with an economically imperialist and arrogant Germany and with the unwillingness of other member states to take the lead, says Lucian Kim

THE silly German expression, ‘peace, joy and pancakes’ — ‘friede, freude, eierkuchen’ — could have been the European Union’s motto. It refers to glossing over problems.

It can also describe the blithe optimism with which most Europeans marched into the glorious future of a unified Europe. Today, that promise seems to have evaporated.