As investors and European leaders big and small tot up the potential cost of Greece departing the euro, the European Union too stands perilously close to meltdown after six decades in the making. Weeks ago still an elephant in the room, Athens' looming exit from the club of 17 nations sharing the single currency has become the hottest topic in town since Greece's inconclusive elections this month. Markets put the collateral damage of "Grexit" -- Greek Exit -- at between 150 to 500 billion euros, while political analysts see the bloc at worst tumbling like a house of cards, at best pulling together to pluck a new future from the ruins. "It is a very very risky game, a very unpredictable situation," Jan Techau, director of the Carnegie Europe think-tank, told AFP. "Once you pull the plug no one knows what will happen, which is why everyone's trying so hard to avoid this." Credited with underpinning European peace and democracy for more tha...