The death of the European dream
While the EU's foreign admirers are on the defensive, international eurosceptics are in the ascendancy. Charles Grant, head of the Centre for European Reform, a pro-EU think tank, says he has been struck on his recent travels by the growing disdain for Europe in Delhi, Beijing and Washington. "We're seen as locked into permanent economic and demographic decline, and our pretensions to hard power are treated with contempt," he laments.