[carlmr]

>The fact that the US and China show up as single countries (and not "continents"/regions) whereas the EU shows up as a bunch of "small" countries is source of a lot of inferiority complex in Europe.

On the one hand, yes, you're right, the EU is more powerful economically as a whole than as individual states. But on the other hand the individual states are a bit less unified than the US or China. So they are a bit more individual in the first place.

[jillesvangurp]

The EU is still fairly new. It's only been around in its current form for a few decades or so.

EU countries still have:

- their own laws and constitutions

- their own foreign policy, embassies, intelligence services, armies, etc.

- their own taxation; there actually is no EU tax (though there is some pressure to create such a thing)

- their own policies for education, healthcare, social security, taxation, trade, etc.

- their own currency in some cases (e.g. Denmark, Sweden, Poland and many other eastern European countries)

- border disputes like Cyprus, the Balkans (several former Yugoslav countries are members or aspiring to be). And though not part of it, you might count Greenland here as it is Danish with a special status.

As a trade block, the EU is pretty large. And the sphere of influence also includes former soviet states not part of the EU, Turkey, Northern Africa, etc. But it doesn't speak with one voice like the US and China tend to do. Also there is a lot of division on topics like e.g. the Ukraine war, energy, and a lot of other topics.

[Symbiote]

Each US state also has

- its own laws and constitution, search "Constitution of California"

- its own taxation (e.g. sales tax differs between states, just as VAT rates differ between EU countries; Americans pay income tax to their state as well as the federation)

- its own policies for education, healthcare (not sure about social security, and not for trade)

- some US states have border disputes with other states, e.g. Tennessee vs Georgia (Possibly the EU does not, they must be resolved before joining, though I can't find a good article on this).

- the USA as a whole has border disputes with Canada

The EU presents more division on more topics than the USA, but the USA isn't united on e.g. energy policy.