Speaker(s): Professor Mario Monti | 60 years after its foundation, major tensions are facing the EU. From institutional to political and economic tensions, from geopolitical tensions (North vs South, West vs East) to tensions between net contributors and net recipients. Threatened by the “-EXIT” temptation in the background, national politics often collide with European integration’s basic principles. However, the “case for EU support” is still robust, as the domains where a balance between the national and the European level has been reached - the Euro, the single market and the competition policy - prove. Mario Monti (@SenatoreMonti) is President of Bocconi University and former Prime Minister of Italy. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.