While I partially agree, I think the author is missing or underestimating the fact that this is what Europe wants as part of the EU’s possible road to some degree of superpower status. Emphasizing trade with everyone but the United States is a key factor. Without this trade (giving up profitable trade with misbehaving states) is not possible, as it’s this trade that Europe’s economic independence and even vitality is increasingly based upon. Trading with everyone else gives Europe the ability to continue growing at a decent rate, giving them increased independence from American economic cycles and from American pressure, and it will increasingly provide Europe with shelter against the “misdeeds” of the nations with which it trades or with nations those nations influence. (Or, more accurately, economic blocs as the EU is trying to establish.)
Insularity from American economic pressure, from American economic cycles, from American foreign policy, and some degree of ‘protection’ from the bad actors America frets about. This isn’t the view from all of the EU, but it is from a large portion, particularly those who have been shaping its course in Brussels for over a decade now. It doesn’t matter if we don’t believe they can acquire these things, they do and they actually may. The entire goal is to diminish America’s influence in the world. That’s not whack-job conspiracy theory, that’s straight out of the mouths of the horse herd in Brussels. That American media does not cover these sorts of things is mind-boggling, and that it’s ignored by so many American political writers is jaw-dropping. The EU does not simply want to coalesce and rise, it is actively pursuing strategies of decoupling. Just as the U.S. has slowly shifted its gaze and efforts to Asia (though without the idea of decoupling form Europe), the EU has set its sights on Asia and Africa with the express idea of leaving the U.S. out.
Economic power alone does not make you a superpower. Military might and the ability to project power are also important. Europe's expenditures on defense have been declining as a percentage of GDP. Their aging, declining populations coupled with generous social welfare systems have forced them to make the choice between guns and butter. They have chosen butter.
The EU does not simply want to coalesce and rise, it is actively pursuing strategies of decoupling. Just as the U.S. has slowly shifted its gaze and efforts to Asia (though without the idea of decoupling form Europe), the EU has set its sights on Asia and Africa with the express idea of leaving the U.S. out.
The EU has its own economic problems and there is a growing tide of nationalism that is bucking the elitist tide in Brussels. The failure to ratify the EU constitution is just the beginning of some unraveling of the alliance. And it will not be that easy to "decouple" from the US. Europe is a dying continent that is becoming less and less relevant globally.