european debt crisis

What caused it, what made it worse, where are we now, how have we responded to the crisis to date and what potential solutions are there to solve it. I feel if you know the answer to all the above you can answer a question on it

Well the answers are actually in the article!!

Interest rates were very low in the Eurozone and as a result both private companies and governments borrowed a lot. Governments in some countries were using the cheap money to increase social services etc..

Everything was fine and there was high growth, until the banking crisis. Interest rates went up, as a result governments could not afford to pay the interest, growth suffered, private companies went bankrupt (because they could not pay the interest) causing more unemployment and more costs to governments for social services.

Now the countries that are suffering are being forced to cut their budgets and to borrow from the IMF etc. (and the lenders are forcing them to cut their budgets).

The big problem is that as the governments increase taxes and cut spending, growth suffers and things risk getting worse and worse.

They are being given loans in order to repay the existing loans as they fall due. You sound surprised, but the alternative would be that the country would go bankrupt and cause suffering to the people (and the risk of the Euro collapsing).
However there are strict conditions about the governments cutting spending.

Interest rates rose mainly due to the banking crisis.

The real estate bubble was when property prices were rising. However when interest rates rose, it mean people could no longer afford to borrow money to buy property and so property prices fell (the bubble burst).

He means the single currency. I.e there will be no union to support the euro and everyone will revert back to their original denominated currency