Comeback kid Sarkozy ?

[Insula Dei]

'Brussels' isn't the unmoving elephant, Swedish Cheese, it are the member states who at every step of the road fail the European ideal. Why are Merkel and Sarko the faces of the eurocrisis, rather than Juncker and Van Rompuy? Because the great players aren't willing to allow the European level to grow more autonomous, and because the small players are largely too selfish to psuh for it. The fact that the Union still is standing after having been used as some sort of bogeyman for personal gains by politicians without too much scruples and off all possible political convictions, is a testament to the strength of its inspiring ideas and ideals.

Am I happy the Union is sometimes used to push neo-liberalism down the throat of unwilling victims? Surely not. Am I glad the EU is undemocratic? No. But as Antonio has pointed out, the EU is something that has to be reformed, not abolished. The European Construction has always been a difficult one, and its completion has seemed distant ever since the EDC (CED)  failed in the Assemblée Nationale back in 1952. Yet it is a project that has continued towards it completion for most of its existance, overcoming many set-backs along the way.

The utter intellectual dishonesty (and sometimes stupidity) of eurocritics also helps to strengthen one's love for the project, it should be said. I'm sorry but every time Nigel Farrage or Geert Wilders open their mouths, or that I read a Daily Mail-article on Europe, I remember that I should be glad that I'm not supposed to side with those people.

@Gustaf: It's not as much about the EU being a world power, as about the EU guaranteeing its members a certain level of autonomy and independence which is not evident for minor players on the international stage. You sound even more unrealistic than even the most dreamy europhile when you start to represent the world without the EU as one where European nations would all just happily coexist and thrive in splendid isolation from the rest of the world.

[Insula Dei]

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That bit was actually meant to explain why I feel the way I do, not to justify it. So it isn't really fallacious, as it isn't argumentative in the first place.