> So to me it seems that the EU as a single block is almost finished. I don't know how old you are but as a European with a passing interest in politics I have

> So to me it seems that the EU as a single block is almost finished. I don't know how old you are but as a European with a passing interest in politics I have been hearing this at least every month for the last ~20 years. And I'm sure it was said long before then. What you need to understand is that the EU exists, and has pretty much always existed, in a constant state of crisis. There is always some major disagreement, some urgent problem. This is just a consequence of the EU's existence as an attempt to unify (in some respects) 27 pretty diverse member states. The EU has survived all of these crises to date. I'm not saying it will exist forever, but I see no reason to believe that the current set of crises will be the ones to kill it. The EU may change but I think it will trundle on for the foreseeable future. Also, there is already an "inner union", it is called the eurozone. Again... constant state of crisis.