A free trade zone yes, but an EU? It is doomed for failure, but not before a great tragedy unfolds.
The EU is now not much more than a free-trade zone (except for Common Agricultural Policy, which will be dropped very soon I hope). You shouldnt confuse a European union with such a union as the US. It is stiil a confederation of sovereign states, and really cannot be anything else.
Why is it important that there is a union? Two reasons:
1. As a counterbalance for Russia (but this is important only for "new europeans")
2. So that the european nations don't start slaughtering one another as in the past. EU is a straightjacket for the nations of europe - in the sense they have to be prevented from making harm to themselves.)
"It is doomed for failure, but not before a great tragedy unfolds."
What sort of tragedy? Can there be a bigger tragedy than WWII, communism and nazism? And EU was not responsible for that.