What is the European Union really all about?

Question

Is it an excuse for France/Germany and their vassel states to sort of gang up on the United States as so to be a rival to us,since they all lost thier colonial empires in Africa and Asia.

Answer 1

No. Mainly it's about creating a common market across Europe for the benefit of consumers. It also has a role in enforcing human rights, aiding relations between nations and controlling interest rates etc.

Answer 2

Its a huge group of European nations working together, to strengthen other members and improving Europe, and hopefully letting Europe one day to be able to compete strongly with China, India, and the United States,

Answer 3

I don't know what the EU really all about, neither do I know what the US and its foreign policies are really all about.

Answer 4

yes pretty much for that perhaps they are trying to make a second Byzantine

Answer 5

Dude, EU is just about making Europe a marketplace to trade easily. Like European country A has no place to sell easily in-borders, so talks to country B..history of EU.

Oh and don't forget arguing over every little silly thing.

Answer 6

The EU exists for several reasons:

1. Two destructive world wars, the nations of Europe sought a common economic and political system to assure prosperity and opportunity and also a way to peacefully resolve conflicts.

2. Many Europeans do not consider themselves to be of one national identity. There are so many families with mixed heritage, that the idea of a "common citizenship" became desirable. Also citizens of the EU can live in one nation and work in another.

3. Every country has ethnic minorities with either no nation state or no desire to return home to their respective country of origin. There are numerous examples: the Basques in Spain, the Hungarians in Austria, Serbs in Bosnia, French and Dutch in Belgium and Albanians in Italy.

4. A desire to create a common market with a common currency that can compete with the dollar in the global market, and so far the Euro has proven more valuable than the US dollar.

5. A need for common security, outside of NATO, which is headed by the US. An alliance (the Western European Union) with European leadership better resolves common European problems.

Answer 7

As most stated above, the EU really doesn't have anything to do with America.  The European nations are so small and have declining populations, therefore they can't survive on only their internal markets.  The EU was developed to remove trade barriers across europe so that taxation on imports would not limit the EU nations to living on their own internal economy.  Basically it merged all of the internal markets of Europe so that they could all survive instead of dieing off one at a time.