INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS Rolling Back or Expanding European Integration? Barriers and Paths to Deepening Democratic and Social Integration HANS-WOLFGANG PLATZER February 2014  The crisis of the euro zone has still not been overcome. That, together with the neg­ative social consequences and problems for democracy resulting from the»rescue policy« pursued to date, has given rise to academic and political debates concerning the fundamental direction of decision-making between rolling back or further ex­panding EU integration.  Against this background this contribution is an attempt, first, to show that and why rolling back – in other words, the return to national currencies and the creation of a »European Bretton Woods system« – is not a solution. Nevertheless, the arguments of critics of the integration process hitherto, culminating in the single currency, and the consequences of the crisis management pursued to date are to be taken very seriously indeed.  We then look, with a glance at experiences with integration thus far, at the structural and political barriers to deepening integration. These are not considered insuperable, however, all the more because reform proposals on the restructuring and expansion of the Union or of the euro zone have made their way from the academic ivory tower and now dominate the political agenda of the EU institutions, where the question about measures to deepen integration is no longer»whether« but»how?«  Within this horizon, finally, we shall outline the paths that may be taken towards deepening in terms of both timing and substance, as well as what needs to be put across in the forthcoming European elections in order to come closer to the goals of an economically more efficient, socially more just and more democratic EU.