EU nervous and introspective at fifty years of age

The EU sees itself as a force for good in the world; it practises soft power, promotes human rights and sets the global bar in environmental standards. Yet a sizeable part of the bloc's 492 million population still remain disaffected from the one-of-a-kind political experiment that has evolved over the past 50 years.

"This process of European integration...is now being called into question by many people; it is viewed as a bureaucratic affair run by a faceless, soulless Eurocracy in Bru...