A mirage no more.

superstate (suːpəsteɪt), noun, a large and powerful state formed from a federation or union of nations: “We are not advocates of a European superstate.” – Oxford Dictionaires.

Victor Hugo famously spoke of the “United States of Europe” at the 1849 International Peace Congress. Almost 100 years later, just after Second World War, George Orwell spoke of the same thing, adding however that these United States should also be “Socialist”. These calls have always been abstract in the extreme. For Europe, holding the bulk of the world’s industrial and war-making ability, division, meaning war, had apocalyptic overtones. The rhetoric of unity, the very phrase “ever closer union” inscribed in the Treaty of Rome, has often had an almost theological quality.

But today European unity is a very real thing. Whether we like or not, the quiet (and not so quiet) work of diplomats, businessmen, politicians, activists and civil servants over six decades is bearing fruit. A number of “game-changer” factors, I believe, will come into play in the coming years, contributing to the creation of something actually like the European Superstate of federalists’ dreams and nationalists’ nightmares. Continue reading →