By 'become a single country' we mean that the present Member States – France, Germany, Britain, Italy et al – would become mere provinces of a country called the European Union. It would be governed from Brussels. The EU already has its own flag, anthem, currency, president, civil service, police force, diplomatic service, and the power to conclude international treaties. To this would be added EU armed forces, loyal to the Union, and under the orders of the government in Brussels; eventually, national armed forces – such as those of Britain, France and Germany – would no longer exist. It would be impossible for any Member State to leave such a Union because the Union could always overpower it, just as California cannot leave the USA.
The construction of such a Union would necessarily involve the destruction, or voluntary relinquishment, of the independence of the constituent Member States. The EU would cease to derive its authority from the voluntary cooperation of its democratic Member States and would instead become the sole source of political authority. National parliaments would probably continue to exist but would be leached of all but provincial powers.
The shorthand term for such a Union is federalism or political union, and the process by which it would be brought about, bit by bit, is termed integration.
The question is whether the EU is a long term project to create such a country. The short answer is 'yes'. It was set up from the beginning with that as the main aim. Those who invented it
This brilliant plan had one snag: if it proved impractical to create a functioning democracy at a pan-European level, then the accomplishment of the plan involved the accidental extinguishment of democracy throughout Europe.
Regarding the founding of the EU – or European Coal and Steel Community as it was initially known – and its motivation please see here. As to whether the EU wants to acquire its own armed forces see here.
Any country wanting to join the European Union must have "the ability to take on the obligations of membership, including by adhering to the aims of political, economic and Monetary union"
“I trust in the wisdom of the British Government and British society.” This wisdom, stresses the Chancellor, leads inevitably in the direction of a more deeply politically integrated Europe; the euro demands a political infrastructure. “European Monetary union has to be complemented with a political union – that was always the presumption of Europeans, including those who made active European politics before us.” “What we need to Europeanise is everything to do with economic and financial policy. In this area we need much more – let's call it coordination and co-operation to soothe British feelings – than we had before.”
“Membership for Turkey would spell the end of political union in Europe. We do not have that kind of integrative strength. We want a proper political union, not just a free trade zone, yet that is what we would end up with if we let in Turkey.”
Dominique de Villepin, the French Foreign Minister, raised the prospect last week of “Franco-German union” in a private talk, saying that this was “the only historic challenge which we cannot fail”, Le Monde reported.
Mr Fischer gives an assurance that Europe will not become a superstate: "Nobody has an interest in a European superstate in the way it is described by Eurosceptics, especially in the United Kingdom." He describes the European constitution as an "excellent compromise" between Britain's reluctance to pool sovereignty and Germany's post-war preference for concentrating more power at European level. He suggests that he now regards the constitution [=Treaty of Lisbon] as the high water mark of integration.
The European Union is in crisis and can be saved only by turning it into a fully fledged “political union”, with a European tax, minimum wage and pan-European political parties, according to a report ordered by the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi. The controversial study, Constructing a Political Europe, chaired by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French Finance Minister, will reignite fears in Britain that Brussels is intent on creating a European superstate.
"Enfin, cette Union européenne, fédération d'Etats-nations, poursuivra sa marche en avant tout en respectant l'identité et l'originalité de chacun des pays qui la composent." "Nous aurions – c'est vrai – voulu aussi aller plus loin encore sur la voie de l'harmonisation dans le domaine social et dans le domaine fiscal..."
"Finally, the European Union, federation of nation states, will continue its march forward while respecting the identity and originality of each of its countries." "We would have – it is true – also wanted to go further on the path of harmonization in the field of social and fiscal matters..."
The constitutional summit had turned into a showdown between the two blocs of the EU: the integration camp led by France and Germany and the free-trade "Atlantic" front led by Tony Blair. In French eyes the British Prime Minister emerged from the summit as the successful villain of the show after he blocked the extension of majority voting to taxation and social policies.
"It is an ambitious text. It marks a passage from a socioeconomic Europe to a political Europe, which will need to be fleshed out in the years to come."
President Chirac immediately denounced the preservation of national vetoes on tax and foreign policy in the constitution. Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, declared that future EU Presidents should only be appointed from countries inside the eurozone. And yesterday, Nicolas Sarkozy, the powerful and supposedly Eurosceptic French Finance Minister, called for the creation of an “embryo European economic government” to control fiscal policies, even as he cautioned against an “exclusive dialogue” between Germany and France.
“My wish would, indeed, be for Great Britain to belong, because it is important. It is going to be important to the integration of Europe and that is something in which I believe.”
We must take Europe to a new level. We need a political Europe capable of leading to the emergence of a genuine European power.
David Cameron is preparing for his first confrontation with the European Union later this week by rejecting demands that he should submit Budget proposals for the approval of Brussels. Herman Van Rompuy, the EU President, wants all 27 member states to share financial plans with the European Commission to prevent another crisis similar to the one in Greece. “A government presenting a Budget plan with a high deficit would have to justify itself in front of its peers, among finance ministers,” Mr Van Rompuy said.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has demanded “ever closer” European integration as the price for Germany’s bailout of Greece and Ireland and possibly other troubled eurozone countries in future... Merkel was echoing comments by Wolfgang Schäuble, her finance minister, who declared that Europe would see “fiscal and political unity” within a decade.
The powers of the euro’s bailout fund were also enhanced in a move hailed by President Sarkozy of France as a key step towards the creation of an EU treasury in the form of a “European Monetary fund”. He said: “By the end of the summer, Angela Merkel [the German Chancellor] and I will be making joint proposals on economic government in the eurozone. Our ambition is to seize the Greek crisis to make a quantum leap in eurozone government".
France and Germany sought to calm the storm around the euro yesterday by announcing plans to equip the 17-nation currency zone with a “government” and a new obligation for all members to pass laws that would enforce balanced national budgets. President Sarkozy and Angela Merkel promised to harmonise French and German business tax as part of their drive to ensure new co-ordinated management of a currency zone that has been battered by concern over the debts run up by its southern members and France.
“If we do not move forward with more unification, we will suffer more fragmentation. I think this is going to be a baptism of fire for a whole generation. We need to complete our Monetary union with an economic union. It was an illusion to think that we could have a common currency and a single market with national approaches to economic and budgetary policy."
Olli Rehn, EU economic and Monetary affairs commissioner, took time out from the talks to tell MEPs: "The EMU [economic and Monetary union] will either have to be completed through much deeper integration or we will have to accept a gradual disintegration of over half a century of European integration."
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, hailed “a new phase in European integration” as she pushed for “concrete steps towards a fiscal union” for the 17 eurozone countries. President Sarkozy of France called for a new EU treaty “refounding and rethinking the organisation of Europe”.
"My vision is one of political union because Europe needs to forge its own unique path. We need to become incrementally closer and closer, in all policy areas. Over a long process, we will transfer more powers to the [European] Commission, which will then handle what falls within the European remit like a government of Europe. That will require a strong parliament. A kind of second chamber, if you like, will be the council comprising the heads of [national] government. And finally, the supreme court will be the European court of justice. That could be what Europe's political union looks like in the future – some time in the future, as I say, and after a goodly number of interim stages."
EU leaders have accepted that political change is needed to ensure the euro's survival. "We need more Europe...a budget union...and we need a political union first and foremost" German Chancellor Angela Merkel told German television yesterday. "We must step by step cede responsibilities to Europe."
"The moment has come to take another decisive step in the matter of integration, with financial and fiscal union." This would include a banking union and steps to harmonise business and social security taxes, he noted. He added "I foresee that at the end of this [eurozone] crisis, the European Union and the eurozone will emerge stronger than ever...For strictly national reasons and not out of any continental romanticism, the United Kingdom will become a member of the eurozone".
The euro and the EU are not products made in an economic factory. The euro and the EU are the result of a great idea, the unity of a political community. It is a project of coexistence, in which support for those who need it should override the concerns of those who don't.
Progress must happen on four fronts: first, towards a genuine Economic Union that ensures each economy has the structural features to prosper within the Monetary Union. Second, towards a Financial Union that guarantees the integrity of our currency across the Monetary Union and increases risk-sharing with the private sector. This means completing the Banking Union and accelerating the Capital Markets Union. Third, towards a Fiscal Union that delivers both fiscal sustainability and fiscal stabilisation. And finally, towards a Political Union that provides the foundation for all of the above through genuine democratic accountability, legitimacy and institutional strengthening.