Quote Originally Posted by Eclectic
No. I was genuinely curious. Because of my current assignment research on Eastern Europe, I have been exposed to Europe's mix-and-match web of treaties. It appears that EU was a reasonably good idea, in so far as that it promotes economic stability (after all, a country must demonstrate some fairly rigid economic policy performace to accede to the Euro as their national currency), national security, freedom of movement, cultural integration, and all of the business benefits that come with these assurances.
The Lira, Drachma, Escudo and Peseta hardly qualified as 'hard' currencies. It was a political decision pure and simple. A pre-cursor, if you will, from our overlords in Bruxelles forcing their concept of a political union, a superstate. Shame they then went ahead with enlargement and totally buggered the whole idea up. Well perhaps not.