Politics

Europe on brink of US-style leap into unknown, top EU official warns

European electorates, driven by a revolt against elites and globalisation, may be on the brink of following the US and making another leap into the unknown by destroying the EU, one of the bloc’s most senior and respected commissioners has said.

Pierre Moscovici, the commissioner for economic affairs, said there was a crisis of the establishment in Europe, just as there has been in America, and asked: “How can Europeans have concluded that because Europe is not working, it might be better to destroy it?”

He suggested the EU could only be saved by focusing on its “beating heart”, the 19 countries inside the eurozone.

In the first speech made by a senior EU politician in the US since Donald Trump’s election, Muscovici said no one should underestimate the significance of the populists’ victory or the warning it represents for the EU.