[vixen99]

It's not really a counter example. The Eurocrats would love the peoples of Europe to be citizens of a united states of Europe (polls suggest people are not so inclined). The Schengen agreement is a logical step towards that goal and is undeniably helpful for travellers. Countries in the continent of America don't appear to have any such ambition.

[raverbashing]

Except the Schengen area includes countries not on the EU (and exclude countries part of the EU - for a reason)

[slashdotaccount]

That's wrong. The ambition clearly exists, steps for free movement are already taken and it's only going to be more unified with time advancing.

http://enwp.org/UNASUR#Free_movement_of_peoples

[dalore]

Wouldn't the "United" states be similar? Each "state" of the union was like it's own country until they formed their own group. People from the USA usually identify with their state first before the country.