LONDON — European leaders will focus on a combined strain of challenges including a refugee crisis, threats facing the euro currency and Britain's plan to hold a referendum on whether to leave the European Union during a summit that starts Thursday in Brussels.
The EU is "undergoing an existential crisis" as a once shared sense of mission fades, said Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network research group in London. Countries are pursuing their perceived national interests instead of seeking collective solutions, and the notion of European solidarity is fading, he said.
"It's anybody's guess now whether it will survive long term," he said of the European Union. "The challenge is the lack of faith in the mainstream political class in Europe that is evident across the continent."
The summit is one of a series of meetings that have tried, but mostly failed, to find an effective collective response to the chaotic arrival of so many people. Leaders will consider fairly minor changes to Britain's status aimed at placating restive British voters ahead of a referendum, and assess how well — or poorly — earlier edicts on migration have been implemented.
The union has a knack for solving difficult situations by building consensus and papering over cracks with layers of bureaucracy, but some warn the migrant situation is a more serious threat to continental unity.
The European Union simply doesn't have a practical method of tackling its myriad mounting problems, said Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe group at King's College London.
All those factors have put the brakes on integration — and may shortly lead to its opposite, he said.