It seems the EU was also created as a competitor to the U.S. They don’t consider us as much an ally as we’d like.
In the pro-Adenauer press, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Christ und Welt, the Deutsche Zeitung of Stuttgart, editorials have been written assuring the Russians that Dr. [Konrad] Adenauer’s policy aims to create the security necessary for both the Germans and the Russians, and that this can only be brought about after Germany had become a third power factor which could employ its influence in such a way as to deter the United States “from starting a preventive war.” Thus, while in the short run the Bonn Government aims to create a United Europe, it hopes ultimately to reach a solid understanding with the Soviets at the expense of the United States.The EU has not changed from those years all the way down to today. And in a lot of ways, neither has Russia.
It is true, of course, that in the person of Dr. Adenauer, the West has been led to believe that the Bonn Government is deeply devoted to the furtherance of the common welfare of the West. But these estimates of Dr. Adenauer and his diplomacy are based on superficial evidence and ignore the fact that Dr. Adenauer was in the past a fanatical believer in the pan-German gospel that the Fatherland should rule Europe and the world. It is, therefore, no accident that the Ribbentrop diplomats and the Haushofer geopoliticians should be his chief advisors. They are prepared to create the Third Power Bloc under German domination through the financial help of the United States, and then turn around and make their final bargain with Moscow. …
— T.H. Tetens, “Germany Plots with the Kremlin” (1953), pp. 7-8