EU needs to consider its New Year resolutions

As the New Year approaches, it is a time to look back at the year that is ending.

But in terms of Europe, the recent Ukraine crisis and Russia's consequent economic difficulties have led me to think beyond the 12 months of 2014.

Let's start, instead, by rewinding back to 2008, when the 28-member European Union was battered by the financial crisis and its home-made sovereign debt upheavals.