Radio Times: Review by:; William Gallagher

Not so much a Sophie’s Choice about what the European Union will have to do next, more a fresh examination of the decisions that led to its founding and set it on a course to its current difficulties. In the first of three programmes, Allan Little looks at how in 1989 a potential union seemed like a balm to the turmoil in Europe.

Politicians and experts of the time talk to him about how the unexpectedly quick end of the Berlin Wall led to a rapid reshuffling of power across the continent and arguably a too-hasty move to a single currency. Separating sovereignty and currency was key to making the union work but it seems that present problems may even have been inevitable — and that plans made then are limiting choices now.

About this programme

1/3. New series. Allan Little analyses the key moments and issues in the history of the European Union that lie at the roots of its current financial crisis. He begins by exploring the changes that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as a reunified Germany committed itself to supporting a single European currency. With contributions from civil servants and politicians, he then recalls how the problems of monetary union became apparent in 1992, when Europe's Exchange Rate Mechanism collapsed.