As the European Union’s crisis deepens, the search is on for scapegoats. A new candidate for this role was recently brought to my attention – the Hungarians. This is not because they have done everything wrong. It’s just that when it comes to international politics, Hungary is congenitally unlucky.

A Hungarian acquaintance argues that every organisation that Hungary has joined for the last 150 years has collapsed shortly afterwards. The Hapsburgs were one of the Europe’s most successful dynasties. But then in 1867, the Austro-Hungarian empire was formed, and by 1918 it had disappeared. Hungary chose the losing side in both the first and second world wars. After 1945, it became a member of the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. Given this long record of failure, the EU should have been on its guard when it welcomed Hungary as a member in 2004.

Yesterday evening I went to a dinner in Brussels, featuring a group of senior politicians and diplomats. These dinners can be dull. But not this one. The sense of crisis in Europe made for an extraordinary conversation. The official speeches were not that exciting – featuring the usual, “we’re living in tough times, but I’m confident we’ll see this through type of rhetoric”. But it was the talk around the tables that was so striking. Three remarks in particular stuck with me.

A new phase in the eurozone crisis?

In this week’s show: after a week in which the prospect of a country leaving the eurozone has been floated, where do we go from here? We look at the possibility of closer political and fiscal union in the eurozone, the state of relations between Germany and the UK, and the prospects for a financial transaction tax.

Presented by the FT’s chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman, with economics editor Chris Giles and Berlin bureau chief Quentin Peel.