By Owen Heimsworth | EU

Martin Schulz, the leader of the German Social Democratic Party, has called for Europe to be unified, single nation by 2025 in a speech to his party.

The European Union is bad as is, but Schulz is proposing a plan to have its member states sign a “constitutional treaty” to take the steps to unifying the continent into one country.

“Such a constitutional treaty has to be written by a convention that includes civil society and the people. This constitutional treaty will then have to be put to the member states and those that don’t approve it will automatically have to leave the EU.” Schulz said.

While I am strongly anti-EU (or any such union of countries), I believe that countries have their right to choose if they are to be included in it. The fact that Schulz would propose that he has the power to kick countries out of the union is despicable. This is a dangerously high level of authoritarianism that he is proposing. You simply cannot dictate another countries decisions simply because you are a leader of a more powerful country. Should he be elected to any position of leadership, he may control his own constituents that elected him, but not those of another country.

The population of a unified EU Country would be about 505 million, while the GDP would hover above 16 trillion USD. It would be the 3rd largest population in the world and the second most powerful economy with the real United States still retaining first place.

Why does Schulz want a unified Europe? He hasn’t given a real answer to that question. It could simply be that he wants authority over 505 million people.

There large cultural and governmental problems with the unification of twenty-three countries.

Each country in the EU has its own culture. Obviously, some of the better run governments are run in homogeneous countries. In this situation, there are twenty-three different cultures and histories that are to be mashed together. This would become a melting pot bigger than the United States. This doesn’t even include the cultures of different regions of a country.

Has Schulz ever looked at a history book in his entire life? Almost all attempted unions of different people groups in Europe have failed. The USSR? Yugoslavia? Catalonia and the Basque Country? Roman Empire? Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all have major separatist movements, and Belgium wants to split into two.

The language barrier would also come into play. The language barriers can be worked around at an EU meeting with modern technology, but major problems come into play. Having to translate during state-to-state meetings would add to the inefficiency surrounded by any government.

Religion would also come into play. There are three countries in the EU that have a recognized state religion-The UK, Denmark, and Greece. There are also multiple countries in the EU that favor a religion but doesn’t list it as official. In the formation of the “United States of Europe,” religions would clash and states would likely leave because of this. State secularism would have to be adopted and many countries would be opposed to this.

The EU is a failure in itself. What makes Schulz think that making it into a country will make it finally work?

The EU has destroyed the Greek working class. Since the Greek debt crisis began in 2009, Greece has been destroyed with austerity measures by the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. In 2015, more than 61% of Greek voters voted “No” to another EU bailout due to the austerity measures included in the plan.

The EU has also stopped African economies from growing. They export heavily subsidized food into the continent forcing local farmers to significantly lower their own prices which makes it harder for them to turn a profit. Up to 60% of all jobs on the continent are in the farming industry. Why does the EU have to step in and try to stifle the obvious growth potential? This all happens while the EU heavily regulates imports from Africa, hurting their trade.

The biggest problem of all though: the government would be huge. A country spanning almost the entire continent of Europe would be undoubtedly the size of an empire. One president would have power over 505 million people. This would likely make local government even further more irrelevant and give a select few at the top more power.

Big government will never work and never will.