Across the Atlantic, support for populist, antiestablishment parties is on the rise. Concern about political fragmentation in Europe is gaining steam. In France, Marine Le Pen of the Front National is a leading candidate in this spring’s Presidential race. In Italy, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned in December after losing a public referendum, and in June 2016 the populist 5 Star Movement won mayoral elections in Rome and Turin. 

But the symptoms of today’s increasingly fragmented political scene in Europe have been frequently misdiagnosed. The European Union’s ruling elites still see the solution as more Europe, not less, with a relentless drive towards ever closer union and the centralization of power in Brussels. They ignore the fact that the European single currency is increasingly unpopular in many EU member states, and that a deep-seated disenchantment exists across the EU with the direction it is moving. 

Iain Murray is the Vice President for Strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Marian Tupy is a senior policy analyst in the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at The Cato Institute. Join us as our expert panel assesses the future of the EU, the momentous changes that are taking place over the Atlantic, and what they mean for Europe and for the United States.