Naysayers of the EU need to learn history. It is worth every penny, every inch of inconvenience.
TWO fucking world wars were started by Europe, by nations that formed the Coal/Steel Union after 45 and now enjoy the longest, uninterrupted period of peace since, like, EVER.
The EU's economy is the largest in the world. You don't fuck with that. Except if you're British and can't stomach the end of your empire.
Not quite, but it's big. The EU is $17T. The US is $18.5T. But I agree that you shouldn't fuck with that especially for the reasons that Le Pen and the Brexiters had.
There is no major conflict directly involving two major powers for many decades (1945/WW2, or 1952/korean war if considering that China was a major power at that time, which is generous IMHO).
That's not limited to Europe, this statement is valid for the whole world.
Several factors can explain it:
* Better living conditions (far less frequent famines, less large scale epidemics, etc), mostly due to industrialization of many countries and consequently less tensions inside and between countries over resources.
* For a part, economic dependencies between countries.
* MAD, but also the realization after WW2 that a major conflict, using modern weapons, even only conventional ones, can only lead to both sides actually losing.
* Better worldwide coordination through the UN (imperfect, yet it helps).
* Better education for large parts of the world population.
* More pacifist views and reject of war.
This is still oversimplifying why there is this unprecedented peaceful period, but it shows the CECA/CEE/EU is far from being the only factor at play.
You think this happened by accident in Europe? It was a forced development, by very smart people.
Coal/Steel union, EG/EWG, EU.
The US and USSR were duking it out all the time, from Cuba to Vietnam to Afghanistan.
Funny how people assume peace in Europe is the natural order. Holy shit, one of the key members put millions in gas chambers just years before its formation.
Europe went from a genocidal maniac (colonialism, holocaust, etc) to peace in no time.
former largest economy: after brexit the EU27 economy will be smaller than the US