Peak Europe turns 25: why June 1999 marked the continent’s zenith

A nagging feeling is haunting Europe: that it is a continent in decline. Its population will soon be shrinking, if it is not already—for the first time since the plague raged in the Middle Ages. European governments that within living memory ran swathes of the globe, from Algeria to Indonesia, are thankfully now back to merely managing their peninsula. The European economy has been stuck in low gear for so long that it can barely hope to match the growth found in America, let alone in China or India. Euro-optimists insist it is possible to slow this relative decline, with all the confidence of a pensioner hoping to make it through another year without a fall. Gloomier types wonder how long the continent’s perks—a generous welfare system, a degree of global influence, long summer holidays—can be kept up.