>>>So how could any indiv. Euro. country hope to compete with an empire the size of the US, with all her mineral riches?
>>
>>You're not familiar with a little country called Russia?
>
>That's not part of the EU and has for 50-odd years been considered an enemy. Besides, a good portion of it's in Asia, isn't it? And yes, there's another empire with huge mineral resources. Hell, Europe and N. America will be going to war against each other for Russia's oil in a few decades!

Since when is the EU, Europe. :-)Even if you count only the portion of Russian that is in Europe, it is still the largest country.