After six decades of relentless — if incremental — integration, might the European Union be about to go into reverse?
The "ever-closer union" enshrined in EU treaties since 1957 no longer looks so assured after a voter backlash in May's European Parliament elections and Britain's increasingly strident demands for a looser relationship with Brussels.
As the smoke clears from the battle over nominating Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, the gulf between Britain and its EU partners looks wider than ever, although all sides talk of focusing more determinedly on public concerns about jobs and prosperity.