[claudius]

Most trade of European countries is internal to Europe, and the few relevant external trading partners are the US (no pirates in the Atlantic…apart from Iceland, maybe ;)), Russia, China and Japan.

Of course the problem of pirates around Somalia is an actual problem, but not one requiring the ‘defence of the EU’ by the US. Similarly, while Russia might not be too fond of an expanding EU, a lot has to happen for Russian tanks to roll west and threaten the largest customers of their oil and gas.

And if all else fails, the ‘Grande Nation’ is still a nuclear power quite capable of defending itself and its close economical allies, even if the guys across the channel would rather become the 51st state of the US.