The European Union's "dysfunctional" institutions and austerity diktats have plunged it into an existential crisis that will require the bloc to reinvent itself to survive, George Soros has warned.

The billionaire investor said the EU had "lost its momentum" as he urged policymakers to abandon hopes of "ever closer union" driven by a top-down approach from Brussels.

He warned that it would take another decade to heal a rift among EU countries that began at the start of the financial crisis in 2008.