This 31 December not only marks the end of the year but also the end of the decade.

In the 2010s, Europe struggled to recover from the global financial crisis and deal with the huge numbers of refugees and economic migrants heading to its shores.

It was also the decade when the effects of climate change became headline news.

For the past seven years, the European Union has posted only modest economic growth, with only a sluggish uplift forecast for 2020.

Many countries in the bloc have never fully recovered from the 2008 global financial crisis and the austerity that came with it.

Greeks took to the streets in 2010, protesting the hardships caused by the conditions of the EU's rescue package after the country's economy collapsed.

Portugal, Ireland, Cyprus and Spain also needed bailouts from the European Central Bank.

The cutbacks and unemployment that followed led to political upheaval and contributed to the rise of populist and right-wing governments.

Migrant crisis

So did the migration crisis that followed. In 2015, Europe was overwhelmed as more than a million refugees and economic migrants crossed its borders.

Italy, Malta and Greece struggled to cope with the constant stream of boats arriving at their shores carrying refugees from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan along with economic migrants from Africa and the near east. Hundreds drowned trying to make the crossing.

Europe was bitterly divided on how to deal with the crisis. Germany's Angela Merkel offered to take many of them in, but other nations refused to help.

In Hungary, there were chaotic scenes at the main railway station, leading the Government to declare a state of emergency and erect a fence along its border with Serbia.

Numbers have dropped since, but immigration remains a divisive political issue and has influenced several elections, including Britain's decision to leave the EU.

Global tension

On the world scene, since Donald Trump became president of the US in 2017, relations between Europe and its closest ally have deteriorated, with escalating tensions over trade and sanctions.

EU leaders have also reacted to China's growing global influence.

In November, the country's President Xi Jinping visited Greece, one of three EU countries to sign up to China's Belt & Road Initiative. The ambitious infrastructure project aimed at boosting trade and connectivity is starting to make inroads into Europe and the Greek port of Piraeus is aiming to become a major center for Chinese trade.

Climate change

One issue that came to the forefront this decade was climate change. Greenland's icecaps are melting at an unprecedented rate, while France sweltered this summer amid the highest temperatures in the country since records began.

Britain, Holland, Belgium and Germany all experienced record high temperatures, while severe flooding also became more common.

In 2015, almost every country in the world signed up to the historic Paris Climate Agreement. However, US president Trump decided to withdraw in 2017 and at the 2019 follow-up conference in Spain, divisions were exposed between rich and poor nations about how to move forward.

Climate change is an issue set to dominate the 2020s and the EU is positioning itself to become the global leader in announcing concrete goals to combat it.