Access Investments-European Union- ROMANIA

A United States of Europe would serve no purpose other than the self-agrandisment of politicians.
The issue is for the different Euopean tribes to avoid the pitfalls of fiscal union and its necessary prerequisite the ballot box.
Fiscal union does not work. You only have to look at the post-industrial parts of the UK and US to see that. make believe jobs created out of ever increasing and ulitimately unsustainable government spending do not work. Ballot boxes are fine for issues of social importance, abortion, same sex marriage etc. Anything of importance has been long recognised as being dangerous to be decided by the population at large, be that by Plato, John Adams or James Madison. The USA is a country of individuals who chose to leave their home country. Europe is the complete reverse, so pyschologically very different. Better to have national politicians who act as lightning rods for popular discontent and have supra-national bodies of technocrats pulling the strings. Italy has rarely been run so well....

"The path toward joint liability is far more likely to lead to a deep rift within Europe, because turning the eurozone into a transfer and debt union that can prevent the insolvency of any of its members would require more central power than currently exists in the US."

Who cares what they do in the US? Since when has that been the benchmark by which European leaders are expected to measure themselves? If these are unprecedented times then maybe they require unprecedented responses? This article appears to argue that because the US doesn’t have such powers, then the EU shouldn’t have them either. I repeat, who cares what powers the US does or doesn’t have?

The great thing about mainland Europe, is that “closer integration” is practically meaningless on the ground. In the average European home, I doubt if many people care how many additional layers of governance are added to the top ('Intergalactic president’ anyone?) as long as those layers have a legitimate governing role and as long as the people still feel connected to the system at a local level. In most European countries in which I’ve had the privilege to live, this has very much been the case – (the major exception being, regrettably, my homeland; the UK. Westminster already feels remote and leaves the UK regions feeling pretty disconnected from any meaningful power or influence. Additional layers at the top – like Brussels – just add to the feeling of isolation.)

At the other end of the scale, the problems faced by people in their daily lives are increasingly less respectful of national boundaries – environment, business, social responsibility and resources - hence the enthusiasm for European level co-operation.

As I said, the number of layers of governance are not the issue; peoples feeling of ‘connectedness’ at the bottom is what really matters, and in this respect, it doesn’t matter how many regions, languages, identities and cultures co-exist under the umbrella of a single entity, with specific inter-national / inter-regional responsibilities …. as long as it is felt to be doing a useful job!