Citizens across Europe are being asked to replace politics and economics with a sheer act of faith in austerity. But it's clear that they are starting to feel the need to stop this nonsense, and European leaders need to take this seriously.

The prospect of a victory by François Hollande may be causing nervousness in Berlin and elsewhere, but the socialist candidate in the French presidential elections is a natural compromise-builder, and Europe should have no real reason to fear his victory.

As France votes in the first round of its presidential elections, the French people have been denied an analytically, politically honest and comprehensive engagement by the politicians with the real issues at hand in France and Europe.

The lack of a defined European response to the current crisis is forcing EU member states to renationalise their own foreign policy, rather than forge common positions. This new age of geoeconomics carries a hidden cost for Europe in the long run.

The financial markets have repeatedly shown their distrust in the long term sustainability of European Monetary Union. Confidence desperately needs to be restored, and that means rapid and credible agreement on measures that include a more integrated political framework.

With Europe and much of the West facing a seemingly painful decline, attention continues to shift to the BRICS and the world's other rising powers. But are these countries overplaying their hands as the cracks begin to show in their economic virility?

Germany's minimalist approach to fixing the eurozone crisis is not only leading to ever more bailouts. It is also harming the rest of the eurozone because Germany's 'ordoliberalism' is too inflexible to provide a coherent answer to the crisis.

After a frenetic 2011, what are the big trends that are going to shape Europe and the wider world in 2012? Here are ten that ECFR experts think are likely - and one widely predicted trend that we don't think will happen...

The only real success of the euro summit was that it might encourage the ECB to step up its role in the euro area. But years more austerity and a major rift with Britain are a high price the whole euro zone will have to pay for German ideology.

The economic crisis has huge implications for EU foreign policy. There is less time for it, less money available, and Europe's ability to project soft power is in a coma.

The answer to the EU's current problems is to rebuild from scratch, replacing the existing EU with a new, two layered structure with an inner and an outer core.

The economic crisis is now at a critical point, and Europe's leaders must chose between a federated eurozone power or yielding to the power of the markets and economic and political disruption.

Despite the deepening crisis, when taken as a whole the Eurozone's basic figures do not look too bad. But because the Eurozone is a flawed construction these figures are only a distraction, and the need for real reforms remains.

The actions of Britain's coalition government are making it more likely that we will see the EU disintegrate, leaving behind a saved Eurozone that marginalises all those outside it - including Britain itself.

The present crisis of the Eurozone is a direct consequence of a half hearted, half considered, half explained and therefore half finished integration. Europeans must be prepared for sacrifice, but our leaders must make sure that sacrifice is worthwhile.