The Success Of The European Union

The European Union is an amazing success story. Today, on a continent with a long history of being divided by war, one can drive from country to country as easily as Americans drive from state to state. There are no guards or checkpoints at the borders. You won’t have to show anyone a passport except in extraordinary circumstances. You’ll simply need to stop at a service station and buy a little sticker (called a vignette) that gives you permission to drive on the highways in the country that you have entered. The least expensive version costs about eleven dollars and lets you drive all over the country for ten days. That’s a much better deal than driving on the turnpike.

When you travel from country to country, you’ll be encountering a different culture with its own food, language, customs, and history. 

Some will point out that the EU has had some growing pains over its first two decades. There have been disagreements about the control structure in Brussels and some immigration policies, but that’s to be expected when attempting to combine such a diverse collection of countries into a cohesive group. Happily, the community well very for the most part, and the results have been mostly positive. Goods and services are easier to buy and sell in a common currency. Transportation is easier with open borders. The influx of capital has done wonders for countries with historically weaker economies. 

Another example of a handy side benefit is that all member nations adhere to the same food standards. Menus show common food allergies listed by number. So, if you’re trying to read a menu in the native language of Denmark or Hungary or Lithuania and you need to find all dishes that are gluten free and don’t contain nuts, you just look for items that don’t have the numbers that correspond to those allergies, and you can order with confidence.

Europeans must be bewildered by America’s fixation with an armed, fenced border with a neighboring nation. It has to remind them of the Cold War, a geopolitical state that no one wants to revisit.

Well, almost no one. There are those who would like to weaken the EU, NATO, and similar alliances. A strong, cooperative Europe does not fit into the worldview of despots and dictators. Beware the enemies of freedom. And cast a cautious degree of suspicion toward any country that claims to value freedom but fences in its borders.