Regarding the second Irish referendum (3 years ago), to my question

So, what if the no wins?

Frank Schnittger answered

There is no plan B, and the EU project will probably be in a state of semi-paralysis for some time - until the next major global crises, where the woefully inadequate response of the EU will probably force a re-think.  Big projects like the EU need big crises like WWII and the Cold War to move them forward.  Let's hope it doesn't take another war...

The yes did win, and yet here we are in 2011 with the EU in a state of semi-paralysis, putting up a woefully inadequate response to a major internal EU crisis and no impetus for a re-think but rather more TINA.

Other than the expansion to 27 which was done in total haste and was supposed to have happened after the new treaty in any case, "the EU project" has been in semi-paralysis for the better part of 20 years. ... the Council, where the political impetus for "the EU project" has to come from, has been stocked with petty-minded nationalists who can't even bring themselves to campaign for their own treaty.

and

The world is likely to see an upheaval in the 2010's and the EU won't know what hit it because of these dunces.

Economics is politics by other means