“Sick man of Europe” or a Symptom of Greater Illness? : An Analysis of the Economic and Refugee Crises in Greece

In seeking to determine the extent to which the economic crisis and the refugee crisis in Greece tested the European Union as an institution and what such a crises revealed about the nature of this particular institution, this thesis explores the role that the structure of the European Union had in shaping and addressing these crises. Through such analysis, this thesis makes the case that both the economic crisis and refugee crisis in Greece have proven to expose shortcomings of the European Union to handle such crises while simultaneously making the case for stronger centralized decision-making processes as a way to better handle crises within the European Union.