Crisis shows the need for deeper unity in Europe

Since the eruption of the Greek crisis, a feeling of doom and gloom about the future of the euro has preoccupied financial markets.

The $1 trillion financial-assistance program that was put together on May 9 by the European Union's Ecofin Council might have stemmed the prevailing panic, but it hasn't taken away the sense that the common currency is doomed. There is a strong feeling that the collapse may have been avoided for the moment but that it will implode sooner or later.

Why this sudden pessimism? Just after the outbreak of the banking crisis, euro-member countries were congratulating themselves about the protection that the region provided its members. All this is gone now.