Germany also had the Kaiser and royalty epitomized the combatants on both sides. They re-fought set piece actions of the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian wars. Non-mechanized wars of attrition characterized by the noteworthy lack of maneuver.
The European Union is expansionist.
The EU has disjointed leadership, huge differences in producing states vs welfare states. A military organization that has no esprit where the only history belongs to the units of the disparate states. It cannot project power, its capabilities lie in the range of peacekeeping. It is bordered on the east by a power that has an old but credible force that has some experience. As you have noted, the German people have no taste for war. To where would the EU expand? Africa? I'd welcome that over our involvement there as a counterpoint to the Chi-Coms.
What royalty did the USA represent in WWI?
The very creation of the EU was an exercise in expansionism. They went from 11 states in 1992 to 28 today; a big part of that was the unnecessary war in the Balkans. As for Africa, take a look at what the EU is doing there (e.g. Central African Republic, Mali).
I also did not say that “the German people have no taste for war”—I said that the elites are currently going against the will of the people. That can change, though, and the elites have plans to effect such a change. For the record, the Bundeswehr has been second behind the USA in terms of overseas military deployments for a while.