I don't really think the EU acts as a counterweight to the US, much like the UN is routinely ignored when it's not in their interests. Look at Iraq for example, most of Europe was against it and held no influence on their opinion. In the end Bush was just looking for support not counsel, and all this flamining of "old europe" and "new europe" certainly didn't help the situation.
I think the original aims of Europe as a common (free trade) market was what it should of been left at. Mind you that means free trade, not mindless subsidies to countries that should open up their industries to the free-market (spot a contradiction here?). I disagree with centralised politics and economics shift of power to Brussels and for any nation state to have to give up its sovereignty to an unaccountable bureaucracy. A loosely federated union where each nation serves its own interests first and agrees on some simple common goals is best.
As for the euro? Has it really been a success? Every member has a different economy and setting blanket interest rates for all helps some countries and hurts others. The recent status of the euro has more to do with it trading as an anti-dollar and hence countries like China, Japan and Middle East diversifying their foreign reserves away from a depreciating dollar than anything else.
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Originally Posted by roland  The EU now is a group of countries working together in economy and politics. "To dismantle the EU" means that this relation is broken, in such a way that all countries will not cooperate and will all have their own political and economical systems.
I think this is a bad idea. The EU countries try to be bound and to cooperate. Although I think there is a certain limit in how much they should be bound, they should not break the cooperation. The USA has a huge influence on world politics, the EU is able to form a more important opinion as a union. If the European countries would be self-equipped states, not working together, the USA would have a much bigger influence. As a European, I don't want the USA to be the president of the world.
About economy: the euro has proven that it is a very strong currency. The euro never could have existed without the EU. So I say no to dismantling the EU. |