I'm conflicted is comparing a whole country travel distance to a state the same or I'm missing something? Genuinely curious. If we are talking about size of just a state do we Europeans have anything close to it?
Similar, absolutely, but there's a LOT more uniformity to states in the US than member states of the EU. Every state speaks English, every state has the same laws generally speaking for about 90% of things, etc.
Yeah, that's what I meant by binding. Just wanted to say that it is not really surprising that the majority of Europeans in these comments compare US states to EU countries.
What no... What are you talking about? EU is not even close to the government structure of the US. Starting that each EU country has their own military, and the EU president has absolutely no power on each of the EU members military.
Sure dude, EU and US, same principle, same as united nations, united airlines and IUPAC. Same principle, they are a union of things, if you mean that as "principle", sure.
EU doesn't have rules that everyone has to follow, they have agreements, that are often very specific between nations. UK was part of the EU with their own currency for example. So no, it's not the same type of union, unless you simplfiy it to "union of things"which of course is the same principle.
Also any member of the EU can leave unilaterally (like the UK), not so much for the US. I don't think they follow the same principle, again, unless you think of it just as a "union of things"
EU definatly have rules everyone has to follow. They're often called "directives" and are not optional. E.g. the 2021 ban on single use plastic cuttlery.
That was decided by EU. Members then have to implement it and reach that goal within a certain timeframe.
EU also decide what can and can't be imported into EU.
True, but my point is that if a country decides not to follow one of the directives, they can just leave if they want, they are agreements that they want to be part of, they are not merely imposed by EU. Nothing like the US and their federal government.
This is like saying that marriage and a double match of tennis are the same type of union or follow the same principle, no, they are not.