The European Union was formed a decade back with the backing of over 14 countries which were flourishing at that time. And it was formed as a strong competitor for the United States, and in the first few years the competition was very much successful.
But over the last two years the global crisis has been able to pull down the European zone faster than the rest of the world. Already Iceland has gone bankrupt, and now Greece and Portugal are in the line of fire. These two countries are also capable of pulling down the entire Euro-zone, as there could be billions of dollars of write offs across the zone.
How far it would be impacting the rest of the world, we need to wait and see.