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It was a foreseeable political disaster: discontent had long been seething, and in May it showed its force in the elections for the European Parliament. Almost everywhere, euroskeptic parties, right-wing populists and even parties openly hostile toward the European Union celebrated strong showings. In France, Britain and Denmark, they even won the election.

Their platform: Less Europe, more nation states. France's Front National wants to exit the euro currency union and reintroduce the franc, while Britain's UK Independence Party (UKIP) would like the country to exit the EU altogether. What they all have in common is a demand for less immigration. If these parties had their say, they would even limit free movement within the EU.

Britain's UKIP was overjoyed at the election results

Mouthpiece for the disillusioned

The euroskeptics may often have a hard time agreeing on a common stance, and setting up a major far-right EU parliamentary group may have been difficult as well - but they clearly have a part in shaping the agenda.

In 2014, migration was an issue that split the EU more than ever before. Human rights groups and even Pope Francis urged Europeans to take in more refugees from the regions torn by civil war in the Middle East and North Africa.

However, the predominant feeling was that "the boat is full" - and far-right populists fanned those flames. They have become the mouthpiece for citizens who see the EU as a detached bunch of bureaucrats who supposedly don't care about the worries of regular EU citizens.

The euro crisis was a "central factor, at least a catalyst for the feeling that the EU is either too far away or gets too involved," said Janis Emmanouilidis, an analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre.

British exit conceivable

Nowhere in the EU was the discontent as palpable as in Britain, where Prime Minister David Cameron is being pushed around by UKIP. Cameron has warned that he can't guarantee that his fellow countrymen will choose to remain in the EU unless the bloc launches reforms and increases jurisdiction for individual member states.

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2014: A difficult year for the EU