| Europe is merely a free trade agreement between various independent country, and a common currency between a subset of these countries. > Unless you think that is normal for a country to have permanent military bases of a foreign power in its own territory. These bases are negociated not through the European Union, but through NATO agreements (AFAIK), and on a bilateral basis. For example, there are no American bases in France since the 60's. > I'm not judging or complaining, it's just the way it is. At some point in history, decisions were made about Europe's own place in the world that put it under US sphere of influence, and these decisions have important consequences to this day. Western European countries, maybe, but please remember that Eastern Europe has been under Russian influence since the cold war (and many of them still are). > It can be argued that European countries traded part of their own sovereignity in exchange for security, protection and economic progress. Some of them traded a bit of their military sovereignty (the first and foremost being Germany), but as far as I know most of these countries are politically sovereign. |