Georgetown University's Charles Kupchan sees reasons to be worried, yet believes reports of Europe's demise are premature:
The health of the European economy is much less grave than he [Theodore Dalrymple] makes out. If one sets aside Germany, Europe’s economic growth has been roughly equivalent to America’s. That sleight of hand is of course unfair; it would be like evaluating the health of the U.S. economy while setting aside the performance of California. But withholding Germany from the picture does make clear that many EU countries are doing quite well. It is simply not the case that the continent is populated primarily by sclerotic, dysfunctional economies on their last gasp.