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on November the 1st 1993 a new Union of European governments was formed that would alter the course of the nations of Europe forever gone were the years of war and diplomatic Strife it was clear that the founding members of the European Union had one primary goal in mind a unified Europe strengthened by the diversity and backgrounds of its member nations you don't need to look any further than the eu's motto in variety Concordia a Latin phrase which simply means United in diversity however things aren't as simple as they seem although the original purpose of the EU was to provide a general economic political and Military Support structure that its constituent Nations could take advantage of for Mutual prosperity and protection it became clear that many vocal Advocates of a transnational European identity wanted to take the European Union a step further why stop it just a union of member states when Europe could be something so much greater why go partway to a full integration when a European Federation could further the interests of all of the people of Europe those that advocates for this Federation are fighting for a new government which many thought impossible just 100 years ago so what would a European Federation look like and is it even possible well to look forward to the future of Europe we have to turn back to the past to see how the European Union we have today came to be the year is 1948. three years prior Europe was ravaged by a brutal and unforgiving War which was estimated to have taken tens of millions of lives not to mention the vast amount of industry and economic developments the war had destroyed in light of these horrible events and considering the fact that internationalism had been brought to recent popularity with the rise of the UN International defense was a high priority among many Western European nations so a few of these countries came together to form what would be known as the Western Union this Union initially composed of the nations of France the UK Belgium the Netherlands and Luxembourg was formed for the purpose of providing defense to all member nations while also including the possibility of further economic cultural and political cooperation however it didn't end there several other pacts would be formed amongst the nations of Europe eventually leading to the European Union with the Maastricht treaty and the Euro since then it has grown in size from only 6 to 27 spanning most of the continent and forming a massive political and economic block which has been competitive with many of the world's greatest superpowers today when you compare the Europe of the 1950s to how it is today it has become a lot more federalized even if it's not technically a federation today so what comes next if anything well it's impossible to know for certain however a European Federation could look much like a stronger European union today see right now the EU is still fundamentally just a treaty whereas a European Federation would be a nation-state with clear and defined roles borders and aspects which can possibly be compared to something like the US the European Federation would have the highest court which issued Supreme decisions it would have a legislature with their ability to tax its population universally and it would most likely have its own military instead of relying on constituent Nations to back it in times of armed conflict because of this though a truly United Europe would be a powerful geopolitical entity capable of wielding influence which only the United States and China have today assuming all of the EU members agree to the formation of a European Federation it would have a population of 450 million people and an earth-shattering 17 trillion dollar GDP making it only third in the World Behind China and the United States in terms of military strength although member states of the EU are typically non-aggressive a few of them like France for example have large and impressive militaries and of course being united means they'd be way stronger a combined military of the 27 member states of the EU could currently field an impressive 1.3 million active duty military personnel roughly on par with the size of the U.S armed forces the combined military expenditure is an impressive 225 billion dollars three-quarters of China's 290 billion and they don't even dedicate a large part of their GDP to a when compared to the US their technology would be better too as they'd all be United in what they're developing because for example while the U.S military uses just 30 weapon systems the eu's many separate militaries use almost 180 six times as many these changes would make Europe dictate its own future and not continue to live at the expenses of America and relying on them as well as protect itself against the rise of India and other growing countries however this type of talk is easy we can speak all day about just how strong a European Federation would be and how it would be able to assume the role of a global superpower but it doesn't actually matter because there's currently a lot of things making this unlikely so what's stopping a European Federation right now well where to begin perhaps the biggest issue is national identity many people in Europe are proud of their country's identity culture and history they don't want it to be stripped away to conform a European identity because let's face it a successful European Federation requires a fundamental shift in identity for everyone they need to feel your European as deeply and predominantly as U.S citizens feel American and this is kind of a hard thing to do when you're comparing say Norway and Hungary it's nothing like Texas and California where while there may be a huge difference in the politics and lifestyle they still firstly identify as American every European country has thousands of years of unique cultures and people you can't just simply merge them together it can end in chaos and division just look at what happened with Yugoslavia for example there is also nationalist sentiment and therefore you're a skepticism as well which has been on the rise in Europe brexit is an obvious example of this and many nationalist parties have been winning elections in countries such as Italy and Sweden these parties aren't one of examples of nationalists winning elections in a continent which generally Trends towards internationalist social democracy their events which are indicators of a trend towards a more nationalist view of Europe those who supported brexit felt that the EU wasn't the future for their country they felt they should leave before they get more tied down because they could better Forge their future independently of the political control of the European Union see anyone who still feels a national identity can potentially be a liability as they will fight for their national interests which inevitably leads to inefficient government in a federal Europe then with this in mind a federal EU would be a heaven for corporate lobbyists just like in the US you now need to Lobby only one government to affect all 450 million people instead of lobbying each country individually the other yet still big things stopping a European Federation is things like currency problems there's still a number of countries waiting for the Euro or not wanting it altogether of the 27 EU countries seven of them are not using it Bulgaria Denmark Hungary Poland Romania Sweden and the Czech Republic there's two groups the countries that can adopt the Euro but don't want to and the ones who want the Euro but can't adopt it due to not meeting the financial stability requirements the wealthy countries refusing to join is because of wanting to keep an independent monetary policy lack of public supports and just the fact they don't want to politically commit to the ever closer Union goal and on the other hand the EU can't just accept these non-qualified countries to join because of the risks it can have even if you as a country have the perfect Financial discipline as soon as a country like Greece goes into a financial crisis due to spending problems High debts and deficits you and everyone else part of the currency are forced to save them to preserve the value of the currency and let's face it no country wants to have to bail out other ones it's another big reason why some countries are afraid to adopt the Euro really eventually this might not be a problem but it's looking like at least a decade away until then and that's being generous lastly another big question is who truly benefits from this the two main countries advocating for a European Federation of France and Germany and it's obvious why they already have most of the power in the current Union and the federalization means more and more control over the autonomous governments of EU members that all being said there's other options that have been floated around even if a European Federation is unlikely the Russian war against Ukraine has changed the playing field quite to put in favor of stronger European cooperation a Switzerland type model rather than a US Federation one is possible with subdivisions like cantons respecting the different languages and cultures of the European peoples and a more direct democracy to not let a unified Europe become a recipe for easier control over more people or forgetting the idea of uniting together like this at all a strong trade Alliance can sort out many geopolitical problems because frankly money talks and then a military Alliance can sort out the rest federalism isn't needed for either of these things technically regardless though whatever happens will definitely take a long time and it can't be rushed it's taken over 50 years for the EU to reach 27 members and even then we can't say that they're all United it will also take decades to evolve into a European identity something must happen though the current EU is sort of in a state of Limbo with either going on to federalization or back to being just the single markets in its cards it's currently two Middle Road to be truly successful long term without major changes with the European Council recently approving the strategic campus a plan to strengthen the eu's defense and security policy by 2030. we see the military is now slowly being united with the establishment of an EU rapid deployment team of up to 5 000 troops so despite all the disagreements member countries have this proof that Europe is still slowly but surely moving towards being more united