(CNN) -- Fifty years ago, a Frenchman and a German -- seared by the devastation of World War II -- forged an enterprise with the less than exciting name of the European Coal and Steel Community. West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French Prime Minister Robert Schuman's modest beginning to European integration -- to tie together the coal and steel industries of France, West Germany and the Benelux countries -- would over the next half-century become a behemoth of 27 states, many of which didn't even exist in 1952. That European Union vision is now at an historic crossroads and could over the next months begin to shred.
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A dysfunctional legacy hampers current eurozone woes
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Greece will be key in determining Europe's future
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Possible scenarios include collapse or even a closer integration
The consequences for the @placeholder economy would be calamitous, with governments defaulting on debt, capital controls imposed to prevent money from fleeing states on the verge of falling out of the eurozone and the likelihood of prolonged recession across Europe.