Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian View Post
The difference is that no-one wants to revert to an absolute monarchy, but there are many who would be happier with less power in the centre. Political and fiscal unity is demanded by a single currency. But why should there be a single currency in the first place? Many of the demands for greater control from the centre, aka Germany, can be traced back to what a single currency based on the Deutschmark entails. If more protracted and expensive negotiations are the result of less central control, many would be okay with that price. Europe did okay in the past when the EC was more of an EEC and less of an EU.
The argument that something began as something else and so should return to what it used to be is the exact same as I used. Are you sure that nobody at all wants to revert to an absolute monarchy btw? ;)

Political unity on some level was already in place before the common currency was made. A single currency holds quite a lot of benefits other than for Germans wanting direct control, it makes it much easier to conduct trade and transactions etc if there is a shared currency. It makes it easier to have freely moving capital within the currency zone etc. There are drawbacks of course, but you didn't ask for those.

Sure, Europe was not a horrible mess before the EU when it instead had the EEC. However the goal of the EEC was always to develop it into something like the EU is today, but even more integrated. But Britain was better off with the Empire than it is today. So when is the British Army returning to occupy India?