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by YankeeTarheel
The problems of the EU didn't emerge with its founding. They were there long before. The EU was the logical merging of the European Coal & Steel Community (the ECSC), the European Economic Community (the EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Commission (EurAtom). They all had the same member nations, generally the same by-laws and the same High Commission. The EU merely combined all 3. What is now the EU was then called the European Communities. When I was there studying it, my junior year, there were 9 nations, having expanded just a few years earlier to include the UK, Ireland and Denmark. No Euro, just "The Snake" which collapsed.
The problem was then that there were 2 fundamental problems: 1) Unanimity was required for any changes to how things were done, and 2) The only control over the High Commission was to dismiss the entire Commission. It was always a fundamentally unworkable situation built around a great idea--The United States of Europe. The idea had been around for years, but the "father" is generally considered to be Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi who emerged from WWI thinking that how Europe was organized was simply insane. Racial, ethnic, religious divisions in what was still basically Europe. His father's family were both Austrian and Greek (hence the hyphenated last name) and his mother was from Japan--a 19th century interracial, inter-denominational, inter-continental marriage! He looked to the USA, primarily, as a model.
The problem I see is pretty simple. It's a 100 Proof version of the problems we had and still had. The states of Europe aren't really willing to cede power to the Federal (central) government, wanting to keep it. Our original charter was similar: The Articles of Confederation. They were also a dismal failure. The Constitution really put far more power in the Central Government's control.
But the EU, unlike the US, doesn't have a real method of the constituent states controlling the High Commission and it's become almost sovereign. The short answer is to have a Constitutional Convention of Europe and re-write the damn thing from the ground up, addressing the failures they have faced.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."