I am also delighted to see Nosemonkey making repeated references to timescale as a potentially seminal factor in assuaging many of more angst ridden responses to the general concept of “ever closer” European integration.

This process is a journey and we (Europeans) are only just at the beginning of our travels, even more than 50 years on from the first tentative steps taken by the Rome Treaty. So to those of a wholly Europhile persuasion who are perennially motivated to utter “are we there yet?” one can only reply soothingly – “patience, patience”.

Abdul-Rahim – yep, that was more what I was trying to get at. The US is a useful model for anyone trying to create a state-like apparatus from scratch (which is pretty much what the EU’s been doing, after all, even though it’s not a state). Not necessarily the final result in the US, but the path taken in America can help highlight some of the pitfalls.

TheSpaniard – precisely. And that’s always been my biggest problem with the more enthusiastic European federalists, with their dreams of a superstate. The timescale’s simply never been realistic. They should be looking in terms of centuries, not decades – slow, natural progression is the only way to create the kind of shared sense of identity necessary.

Kay – erm… How so, exactly? What I’m advocating is precisely that the individual countries still make their own laws, and for minimal centralisation of power. As for why I favour a United Europe, see here.

What is wrong with individual countries making their own laws?

You seem kind of, oh, I don’t know… Totalitarian!!!!