I am firmly convinced that if we Europeans form a federation, at some point the result could be the most advanced and powerful civilization in history. We obviously have our differences, but if we develop our ability to utilize our collective cultural richness as a resource, it would increasingly foster greater understanding and innovation. It seems equally obvious that we could fairly dependably build on what we have in common and that we might be able to utilize the strength of facts to overcome the difficulties created by our differences.
It would appear to be fairly clear that we need to be able to work together much more efficiently if we don’t want to be to a very significant degree subject to the influence of people who don’t exactly consider our well-being the highest of priorities. Greater unity would thus seem to be exactly what we need going forward, and given how much we have in common already, it might be surprisingly readily achievable, provided that we focus primarily on what we have in common and all of the other things that truly matter most. To me it seems rather clear that there is so much more beyond a veil of fear and confusion: a new, more concerted kind of Europe awaiting its birth. Building a properly functioning European federation would, of course, be a fairly challenging endeavour, but it would seem to be possible with the right kind of approach.
Since it would appear that a system of government built on strong distrust is relatively likely to be well-functioning and prosocial, it seems most appropriate to seek to build the foundations of a European federation with the same principle in mind, or in other words, to build the whole system around checks and balances that are as strong as reasonably possible without being excessively burdensome. Establishing this kind of a system that has a very clear emphasis on the safeguarding of the rights and liberties of the people and that operates in a relatively sensible fashion is in my opinion most likely the only way in which a European federation can be built, since it would seem that any people with its own sovereign state is rather unlikely to relinquish its national sovereignty if they perceive that there is a substantial chance that such a decision would make their prospects worse, and especially so if they think that it is possible that they might end up being oppressed as a result of such a change, and obviously extremely so if it seems even a little likely that the possible oppression would be totalitarian in nature.
Accomplishing the establishment of a European federation with a top-down approach, i.e. turning the European Union into a federation seems rather implausible, since entering into an unproven system of such nature would seem to be intolerably risky for the vast majority of the people involved. Therefore it would appear to be fairly clear that the only way in which at least most of Europe can reasonably be expected to become a federation without the use of military force is with a bottom-up approach, i.e. via a state (or maybe up to a few states) becoming a federation with a constitution with the necessary checks and balances and then fairly conclusively proving that the system actually works properly and that joining the federation is the superior alternative to keeping national sovereignty and then enlarging it piece by piece at a pace that allows the federal government to function properly without exception. Ideally the states or parts thereof joining the federation should border it or be readily accessible by sea through domestic and international waters, but exceptions could obviously be made in situations that demand it.
Prior to settling on a final draft of the federal constitution, substantial effort should, of course, be put into studying what solutions have been successful in other federations and naturally also what they have failed at, with a particular focus on studying the oldest federation in existence: the United States of America is obviously a deeply flawed country, but it is still quite clearly worthy of emulation in many ways, and I am reasonably confident that it is possible for us to create a superb federation in Europe if we put sufficient effort into the process of crafting the constitution and legislation in general and take a very deliberately eclectic approach to both.
If the state is genuinely highly prosocial, it seems likely that its citizens would be on average fairly supportive of it and that a very considerable proportion of them might be quite motivated to fight for it as well.