Will 2017 be the year that breaks Europe? With geo-political risk at the top of everyone's radar, we focus on one region that's going to be increasingly in the spotlight in the coming months - Europe. It's not just the high-stakes elections due shortly in France, the Netherlands and Germany, there's also the migrant crisis, the potential death of the open border Schengen agreement, and the wide-ranging challenges presented by America's new administration. Could the challenging politics undermine the economics of the European project? In the Balance weighs up the issues with a panel of guests.



Ed Butler talks to Maria Demertzis, Deputy Director at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels and a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam; Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government and Professor of Global Economic Governance at the University of Oxford, and Ruth Lea, Arbuthnot Banking Group's Economic Adviser.



(Picture: The US and European Union flags fly in Berlin, November 2016. Credit: TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images)