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EU Facing Great Challenges at a Time 'When It May Fall Apart From the Inside'

© REUTERS / Vincent KesslerEuropean Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker leaves the desk after his address to the European Parliament during a debate on The State of the European Union in Strasbourg, France, September 14, 2016
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker leaves the desk after his address to the European Parliament during a debate on The State of the European Union in Strasbourg, France, September 14, 2016 - Sputnik International
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EU leaders have come up with a road map to reinvigorate the bloc amid uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote. The initiative was discussed by 27 member states on Friday at an informal EU Summit in Bratislava, Slovakia.

European Union countries flags are seen at the Bratislava Castle (Hrad) during the European Union summit- the first one since Britain voted to quit- in Bratislava, Slovakia, September 16, 2016 - Sputnik International
EU Seeks Fresh Start in Bratislava as Brussels 'Gives Everybody a Bad Feeling'
Despite certain hopes the EU states have not been able to work out any comprehensive strategy of how the EU should act in the coming future. Radio Sputnik discussed the issue with Alexander Thiele, a European law Professor from the Free University of Berlin.

"It wasn't to be expected that this summit would have led to any sort of a great deal that would be able to solve all the upcoming problems in the future," Thiele told Sputnik. "What actually has been reached is the agreement that we first of all need a new agreement on where to go with the European integration after Brexit," the expert added.

On June 23, 52 percent of UK voters chose to leave the EU in a referendum on the country's membership in the bloc. The UK's Brexit decision means the EU is about to lose its most capable military member state and signifies the failure of the European system as a whole.

"Brexit was a clear break in the European integration process. And it sort of caught most of other European Union's member states more or less by surprise. Everybody expected things would go well, but they didn't. So what we see now is other member states trying to find a solution, how to cope with this new situation," Thiele said.

The growing frustration over the EU's perceived inability to get a handle on the migrant crisis is widely believed to be the most relevant topic for the block. However, the expert also named such issues as socio-economic problems in Southern European states, the euro crisis, international crises and climate change as the main problems which the Union now has to resolve.

"And all these great challenges for the European Union [come] at the time when we see that it may be falling apart from the inside," the expert stated.

The main problem, as the expert noted, is that European countries are currently far from unity as many of them prefer to pursue their own interests, rather than those of the bloc.

"National interests are far more dominant than we expected them to be in better times. Practically every nation, every member state […] has now started to express its own national interests in a far more intensive way than before. And therefore holding the club together is something that will be on the main agenda of the remaining 27 EU member states in the coming future," Thiele said.

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