The outcome of the French municipal elections the weekend before last contributed to the general European unease about the future of the European Union.

In May, elections for the European Parliament will take place under the troubled circumstances of economic crisis everywhere except Germany, with tension between the EU, the United States and Russia over Ukraine contributing to the uncertainties that exist about the future of the Union, with a notable rise in support for separatist parties in several important countries, one of them — of course — France.

There is also call in the mainstream for revising the fundamental treaties governing the EU, with a British threat of withdrawal from the EU, conceivably finding emulators elsewhere, with serious consequences for the new "Europe," which has been the proud political achievement of the West in the past half-century, replacing the European system of warring sovereign nation-states, founded at Westphalia in 1648, with the construction of a new EU, now with 29 members.