What is the structure of the sentence below?

What is the structure of the following sentence?

The chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known, a hint she was open to more drastic steps.

In particular, what do "a hint" and "she was open to more drastic steps" do here?

All that the writer has done here is deliberately omit that (Conjunction Reduction) from the sentence, which is acceptable though informal. Thus, after a slight rephrasing the sentence reads—

The chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known, a hint [that] she was open to more drastic steps.

Grammatically, the Clause The chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known stands in apposition to the NP [a hint]. Further, that acts as a subordinator here connecting the appositive clause with the Clause she was open to more drastic steps.

ALTERNATIVELY, one might rephrase the sentence as—

That the chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known, is/was a hint that she was open to more drastic steps.

In this case, the Noun Clause [That the chancellor...] acts as the Subject of the sentence; [a hint that she was...] acts as the Subject Complement— that is, it describes the Subject.