European Unity Threatened by Economic Slowdown

Europe seems to be catching the economic malaise that has already affected the US, and the downturn is putting a damper on member nations' enthusiasm for the 15-year-old Economic Union, the Washington Post reports. Revised projections show European economies slowing down as much, if not more, than the US over the next year and a half.

The financial interests of the EU's 27 countries now diverge, as downturns in Spain, Ireland, and Denmark are more like the US than the situation in France and Germany. "The deteriorating economic condition is putting new stress on Europe, which seems to be even weaker now than the US," says a Deutsche Bank economist. "Some pessimists even talk now about the euro area breaking apart. I would not go that far, but we do know the honeymoon is over and this is the first real test of the marriage that we have seen." (More Spain stories.)