Europe seeks to maintain unity, but is it too closely knit?

The European Union has kept peace among member states, but some are finding the ties that bind are becoming too tight, writes Caroline O’Doherty

THE treaty that underpinned the formation of what is now the European Union ran to more than 30,000 words but its ethos could be summed up in just two of them: “ever closer”.

The theory was that countries that were interdependent economically would not wage war for fear of mutual destruction, and as they grew more deeply allied ideologically, they would not turn aggressor on a friend regardless of economics, while any tensions would be mollified by the intervention of others in the friendship circle.