Hinting that a break-up of the Union is more than likely, Mr Teltschik said the bloc’s main players France and Germany were “stuttering”. The German politician said: “European integration was the peacemaking response of the Europeans to the catastrophe of two world wars. No generation in Europe has ever been able to live in peace, freedom and prosperity for seventy years.” 

“We are witnessing an erosion of the EU with the euro crisis, with Brexit and the emergence of populist movements in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria or Italy and the authoritarian Eastern neighbours, especially in Poland, Hungary, Romania.” Speaking of the embattled Brussels club, Mr Teltschik added: "The European Commission is overwhelmed with criticism almost every day, often enough by those who make the decisions, or rather don't make them, for the EU at the European Council."

“The German-French engine has been stuttering for years.” Mr Teltschik also issued a chilling warning, telling Europeans to brace for an ongoing migrant crisis, which he says has only just begun, along with more Islamist-inspired terror attacks. He said: “The refugee wave is only the beginning. Millions of Arabs, Africans, Pakistani, Afghans, and others, tormented by war, terror and poverty, are looking for new life perspectives. The communist ideology is dead. Today, we are witnessing a totalitarian and murderous Islamism with its terrorist acts, that are spreading across borders. No upper limits or video surveillance will help with this."

Concluding that the embattled European Union is “failing as a team player” and turning its back on its past experiences in the wake of a Cold War, he asks: “What Europe do we want?  Should a core Europe go ahead? Suddenly, a defensive union is being discussed again, without a common foreign and security policy within sight. And this in a world that is re-forming itself. Everything suddenly seems to be on the test. The experience of the past decades has been pushed aside.”