As a result, intra-European trade and support for European institutions, having soared in the previous two decades, began to decline practically before the ink on the Maastricht Treaty was dry. The eurozone’s protracted crisis, which began in 2008, has exacerbated this trend, with member countries still struggling to restore economic and financial stability – and likely to continue to lag behind the rest of the world in terms of GDP growth.
结果是马斯特里赫特条约几乎墨迹未干，过去二十年来一直飙升的欧洲内部贸易和对欧盟机构的支持就开始走下坡路。2008年开始的欧元区长期危机加剧了这一趋势，各成员国至今仍在努力恢复经济和金融稳定——很可能在国内生产总值增长方面继续落后于世界其他地区。