Observations about the world, part fifteen

Photograph of the Atlas globe

Why the EU isn't a federation |
Saturday – December 20, 2025

I have placed the EU (the European Union) on my "List of countries, corporations, and other entities that I boycott" for reasons that I explain on that page if you are interested. The EU is in my mind the result of the increasingly materialist world order, and indeed the purpose of the EU was to increase trade and economic exchange between countries in the hope that this could also carry a certain cultural exchange, and indeed this was written into the founding preamble of the original EU treaties, it was called the Coal and Steel Union at that time. Of course today, the EU has grown into something much larger and something that some of the founders of the EU did intend it to become, but do note as well that many people did not intend the EU to grow into this massive bureaucratic extra state. But again, the main purpose behind the EU was to try to create more peace, a Pax Europaea, and so far you could say that the EU has been rather effective at avoiding large scale conflagration between its member states, but you could also make the argument that more than anything else the world in its current state has removed all incentives for a major conflagration on the European continent, with the modern exception of Ukraine. Of course, as always with these things there is a confluence of factors that have led to the present state of affairs. But today the EU seems to have arrived at a point where people are calling for it to become a federation, but in my view this isn't going to happen anytime soon, for a variety of reasons. In our times there's much talk about the need for diversity and cosmopolitanism, even though the only thing this seems to have ever created is more conflict and strife between people, but it's clear that Europe as a continent is already very diverse, and if anything it would seem that creating a massive state out of the 27 member states of the EU would only really create less diversity in Europe since this would create a dynamic were less powerful states in the EU would start to regress towards the mean, which appears to be somewhere between France and Germany, with Germany having the upper hand. Again, all that this would mean is that a European Federation is likely to create less, NOT more, diversity on the continent. You should also not fail to notice the subtle imperial ambitions that many proponents of this idea have: many of them are calling for countries that are not members of the EU to become members of this proposed federation; countries such as Norway and Switzerland. A quick note on Switzerland: that country has a long history of a very certain isolationism, and I do not see any reason why Switzerland would all of a sudden change this attitude towards the rest of the world. I am not too sure about the potential future status of Norway, but they appear to have largely economic interests in keeping out of the EU. Indeed, many countries that are at present members of the EU would have to leave if the EU is ever to become a federation, either because they themselves wouldn't want to join a federalized EU or because many other members of the EU would not want them inside a federalized EU. These are only the material concerns when it comes to the possibility of a federalized Europe, and of course you do have many other major and often painful considerations when it comes to identity and the fundamental sovereignty of most member states. How would a proposed EU army look and how would it be raised? No, none of these things are going to work, even in the material domain, and you do not have to consider the metaphysical dimensions of the task to understand this: indeed most economists and most political experts appear to agree that a united and federated Europe is very unlikely because of all of the economic concern alone, including how to raise taxes and how to uphold the welfare states of richer EU members. No, at this time there will be no European Federation.

    Why then are so many people talking about this? Well, it's partly Russian propaganda adding to the noise, and it's partly because there is indeed a lot of hysteria about the war in Ukraine, but these voices are far louder than the more grounded and reasoned and dear I say conservative—not in an overtly political manner though—voices that understand that the prospects for a federalized Europe, even at this late state, are bleak. I should add that I am largely not concerned with the potential future development of the EU or Europe, again two distinct entities, but I am profoundly against any massive and ideological projects such as the EU itself and the even vaster idea of making the EU into a nation-state. I do also continue to hold that divine providence has ordained that Europe will continue to decline, something I have covered in my "Future series". Essentially, there's a lot of talk about this potential federalization of the EU because of the war in Ukraine and because of fear of Russian Imperialism, a country, Russia, that is really in profound and advanced decomposition at this point.

    When you consider the prospects of attempting to unite the EU into a large federation it becomes clear that there are too many cultural, linguistic, economic, and metaphysical barriers standing in the way, and this is a good thing, because it's a sign that there are still forces in the world very much opposing the rapid decline and decay of our times, the Kali Yuga. I do not, however, allow this to make me overly optimistic, because I believe only in the optimism of the remote future, the future beyond our era, and in the meantime I believe that the only good option is to retire from the world.

Reginald Drax – December 20, 2025.