In the first chapter of the Challenge Europe volume, Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Paul Ivan analyse the current state of the European Union, which has weathered a few storms since the beginning of the ‘euro-area crisis’ in 2010. The experience of recent years has severely damaged the trust of European citizens in the EU’s institutions and has cast doubts on whether the European project is still worth perusing if it cannot deal effectively with not only with the immediate crisis, but with the many other serious socio-economic, politico-institutional, societal and global challenges ahead. The global financial and economic crisis has put European integration to a major test, and even though the situation has improved significantly since the summer of 2012, it has become clear that very soon, the Member States and new European leadership will have to take strategic decisions about the future of European integration.