Hi tracy,

>One thing the EU would surely do is present a clear economic and political powerhouse to equal that of the U.S. I think a shift in the balance of power would be a good thing but I can also sympathize (and support) with those rejecting it on the grounds of autonomy.

The EU union does already exist for a few decades (70's) and a lot of our economical decision already run through the EU. The constitutions (are) however are still up to the individual countries. This was an attempt to get a global EU constituation where a lot of legal issues were defined, not so much economical.

The situation of europe is in many ways not comparable to the US. for example there about two or three dozen different native languages spoken in europe, different currency (not all EU members have euro currency (yet)), different cultures, history, economies, etc. The process of getting them all working together is way and way more complex than what happened a few centuries ago in the US.

Walter,