Washington Post - As nationalism rises, will the European Union fall?

According to this Washington Post op-ed: "The European Union is dying -- not a dramatic or sudden death, but one so slow and steady that we may look across the Atlantic one day soon and realize that the project of European integration that we've taken for granted over the past half-century is no more."

Comment: Has the devolution of Europe begun? Many BP commentators follow the traditional interpretation that an expanding E.U. represents an end-time Rome while others believe that the E.U. will fracture into a strong inner-core (perhaps comprised of the ten countries - or kings - that prophecy scholars have been expecting) and a loosely confederated outer-core that will only rejoin later, once the ten demonstrate their success in rebuilding the European dream. I subscribe to the latter interpretation. The E.U. has been very successful at building a community defined by free trade and open borders and that community will survive the coming political changes, providing the underlying base from which a new political structure can emerge after a period of fragmentation. So, while the editorialist can write their epitaph, I would not be so quick to write them off.