User:Exacri/Omnipedia/Collapse of the European Union

  COLLAPSE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 

 COLLAPSE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION  September 17th 2025 brought to a close a 68 year chapter in European history, when in a meeting in Brussels, attended by the heads of its remaining member states; the chairs of France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain left symbolically empty, the European Union unanimously voted to disband.

 FINANCIAL WOES  With many of its 28 member states still struggling with the after-effects of the "Great Recession" of 2008 - 2018, and with the cash reserves of the European Central Bank (ECB) running low, in January 2020 Greece failed to secure a 4th round of bailout funding from the ECB. Following 3 months of civil unrest, the Greek Government announced that they were defaulting on the debt, leaving the EU and restoring the Drachma as the official currency. The shockwaves that this sent through the Eurozone would result in the exit of Italy and Spain by August and October respectively.

 THE RISE OF INFLATION; THE RISE OF EXTREMIST POLITICS  By mid-2021 the European economy was in a state of freefall. Inflation was rising rapidly in the countries that had had to give up the Euro as their currency, and government terms in Greece, Spain and Italy were typically short; Italy held 3 general elections in 2022 alone. Extremist politics were on the rise, and rival parties clashed in the streets of Greece and Spain. In the years that followed, the member states with smaller economies (Poland, Romania, Hungary and Ireland) would have no choice but to default on their debts to the ECB, and exit the Eurozone one after another.

<font face="Segoe UI"> COLLAPSE OF THE CENTRAL BANK, THE FAILURE OF A CURRENCY  <p style="font-weight:normal;"><font face="times new roman">On the 14th of March 2025, fearing the effects of the by now inevitable collapse of the ECB on their own failing economies, the economic powerhouses of the European Union, France and Germany announced their own withdrawal from the EU. The value of the Euro crashed, losing 68% of its value over the course of a single day of trading, closing the day at a value of $0.37. International trading of the currency was suspended, and the ECB placed into receivership.

<font color="#000000"><font face="Segoe UI"> DISSOLUTION  <p style="font-weight:normal;"><font face="times new roman">With substantial quantities of Europe's wealth wiped out, and with global economic commentators saying that it was surely only a matter of time, 6 weeks later on April 28th 2025, the Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957 was dissolved along with the Maastricht Treaty of 1993, formally dissolving the union and returning the former nations to their native currencies.