While I congratulate Airbus on manufacturing this behemoth I'm not sure what it says about "Old Europe" that we didn't already know. Aircraft have been around for over 50 years. They built a bigger one. So what? (As an aside, I notice the report didn't state the runway requirement for this thing. Long landing requirements hurt the 747.)
Innovation would do more to show the strength of "Old Europe" than taking an American invention and making it bigger. The Soviet Union could do that.
Shalom.