[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Rob

As the euro experiment has proven the member states of Europe are too disimilar for a complete Union to work at present. Economic policies of countries don't match up, and then there is the fundamental problem of different interpretations of laws and regulations that some seem to follow more closely than others. Last but not least is the problem of language, and thus culture, something that other unions such as the USA really don't face.

It's worth looking at the break up of the USSR. In part that failed due to the fall of communism, but it is was the closest thing we saw in terms of attempts at unification of disparate countries, cultures and economies to one political mindset. Why should anyone think that Europe can achieve that level of success?

Unions such as the USA, achieved their coming together to commonality in the days before our modern media allowed the majority of the populace to be instantly aware of what was going on. Political power was in the hands of a real few, and economics were largely insular due to the difficulties of communication and transport. Those unions have then had time to develop and react to modern global economies.

The EU started out as a community with the aim of trying to improve trade between countries. Somehow that has gradually become confused with a wider powerhouse ambition. But the reality is that our sovereign govenments are seen as more important than the EU. In fact, for the EU to become a true union we have to start seeing a stage where we, the individual public, have direct control by election of whoever is President, and we hear a lot more from our representatives in the EU parliament having proper control over the direction of the individual states and their policies. If the EU was to be important, it would be the EU parliament that would be sorting out the euro fiasco, not the premiers and governments of each country. And it is entirely because the euro parliament is a waste of resources with no real teeth that the Euro, could never work.

Europe needs to wind itself back a bit, forget it's growth ambitions, and revert to it's original aims to promote trade between natiions rather than interfering with additional red tape. For some years to come I have to say we don't need a United States of Europe, but we do need a common trading platform.

All the members of the USSR all used to be part of Russia for hundreds of years and all the ex USSR nations have a lot of people who want their nations to be part of the Russia!