PROBLEMS OF INTEGRATION IN A FEDERAL EUROPE

In many respects European economic integration is now an accomplished fact. A single market and, for most member states, a common currency are in place. But as the spillover integrative process asserts, success in one field encourages expansion into other fields hence the drive among many EU elites for political integration of the EU. No sooner is the project of constructing a federal Europe put forward however, than it brings crucial questions in its wake. Questions such as; what becomes the lot of smaller states within the EU if and when sovereignty, which today acts as their protective buffer is removed? What would the societal culture of the EU super-state be bearing in mind that the societal culture of states is largely hinged on language? In other words, what would be the official language of a federal EU in view of the suspicion and fierce nationalist and cultural rivalries that exists among Europe’s peoples? This paper examines these issues which must be addressed if the federalist project in Europe is to be anything more than dangerous adventurism.