The reason for NATO's relevance in Europe is that it keeps Continental Europe and the U.S. from becoming hostile to each other (which would be in neither's interest).
Staying in NATO furthermore means stability, as no European foreign politician has to care about the classic construction and sabotage of short-term alliances. Staying in NATO simple means one foreign political problem less.


The current financial market crisis which includes the exposure of unsustainable economic and political models in countries which never came close to meet the standards required for the common currency and in countries that actually should not be in trouble (but are being pushed into needless troubles by speculation) is a drastic crisis for some European countries, negligible to others.

The institutional Europe has to learn that (despite being quite pro-Europe ideology-driven) is can make mistakes and did some. So far the successes overshadowed mistakes, now there's an exception. A weakening of the pro-Europe ideology and subsequent greater ability to correct earlier pro-Europe moves can very well lead to a better union.

The greater awareness for the economic differences of the member states helps as well. On top of that Germany has never been more close to understanding that its huge trade balance surplus is a problem, not a performance to be proud of.



Finally; Europe doesn't break apart because of a crisis like this. That's a scenario for people who don't care about reality.
Much of Europe has been institutionalised, much has become a quite irreversible habit; even a total failure of the common currency would only scratch the surface of European integration.

The idea of fixing the exchange rates (= common currency) was stupid anyway, many economists told so since the mid-90's. It was an ideological overreach.

The next logical step was not to unify currency, but to unify media. The continent cannot unify more without having a more similar perception of the world. Nation-wide news need to cover about the same topics with about the same emphasis and lead to a political homogenization this way.
Boring TV channels such as Arte don't cut it, what we need is a media network that produces almost the same content (partially regionalised) in different languages.
National 'balloon boy' BS stories need to give way for the major stories from other countries. I haven't heard about he foreign policy of Lithuania EVER.
That is where unification can proceed and has to proceed if at all.