This chapter develops a conceptual framework to classify the global challenges confronting the European Union, distinguishing among event-driven crises, process-oriented threats, and recurring threat-to-crisis issues. By intersecting temporal dynamics with spatial scope, it maps how different configurations of disruption impact EU integration and public perception. Drawing on comparative analyses of immigration, climate change, COVID-19, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the Gaza crisis, the chapter shows how the same challenge may generate divergent public reactions across member states. It emphasizes that the perceived role and legitimacy of the EU vary depending on institutional responsiveness and national political filters. Rather than eliciting uniform support or backlash, crises trigger differentiated patterns of concern, politicization, and demand for supranational action. The typology offers a critical tool for understanding the nexus between crisis management and European integration, while capturing how citizens’ expectations towards the EU are shaped by both material exposure and symbolic constructions of threat.