Profile: Daniel Gros on political risk and Europe's debt crisis

What began as a debt crisis for Greece has become something more political and existential, as Europe asks whether national deficits are a purely national problem – or whether a shared currency demands otherwise. Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies, believes Germany and Italy now hold the keys. By Alex Monro

Since the European Steel and Coal Community was formed in 1951, the machinations of European Union (EU) politics have rarely held the world’s attention for long. Even the launch of the euro in 1999, an event without precedent for the continent since the Roman Empire, only briefly captured the imagination of the world’s press.

The sovereign debt crisis has changed all that, focusing attention on European politics as never before – and cruelly exposing the EU’s confusions and contradictions