In any case, one could argue that we’re well on the way to an imperial EU. It’s already a big multinational entity with a single currency (for the most part), a common trade policy, its own legislature and numerous federal institutions. And though the EU cannot be described as a sovereign state, it is the only entity that isn’t one to be permanently represented at the G7, and to be a member of the G20. [...]
On the Eurosceptic side, the tendency has been to present the EU as either an out-of-control bureaucracy or a vehicle for the machinations of rival nation-states (especially France and Germany). Eurosceptics do, of course, refer to the logical implications of “ever closer union,” but almost always in terms of the threat to UK sovereignty, as opposed to the creation of a new and much larger sovereign entity – their focus being what would be lost rather than what could, potentially, be gained.
Mainstream Europhiles have also avoided the issue – presenting the EU not as an empire in the making, but as a bulwark of a rules-based international order. In fact, they’d probably argue that the European project is all about challenging the very basis of imperialism: the idea that might is right. At its heart is an understanding that the powers of the Earth, whether big or small, should jointly abide by rules determined by principles of peace and justice, fairness and efficiency. And the EU has a special role to play in the implementation of this global vision, as the vanguard and exemplar of rules-based internationalism. [...]
That, of course, would require a common foreign policy and a European Army sustained by a greatly expanded EU budget. Whether the EU is capable of such integration is another matter. The current situation in which the Germans profit from the single currency and common trade policy, while not having to pay for fiscal or defence integration is such an absurdly good deal that I don’t see why Berlin would give it up if they don’t have to.
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