Ukrainians expect EU to protect country's 'independence and territorial integrity'

[The Magistrate]

11. Of Course They Are, Ma'am

And in the long run it is probably a good thing.

Europe is feeling its way towards a genuine federation. Most of the problems at present, particularly the economic ones, result from 'imperfect union', from local jurisdictions having responsibility for economic matters but no longer full sovereign authority in economic matters, while the embryonic central authority cannot levy on one portion of the whole to assist other portions of the whole.

At present several supra-national authorities are providing some framework for genuine exercise of central authority, though these still fall far short of doing so fully. The European Central Bank and the Euro approach a genuine 'national' or continental economic authority, analogous to, say, the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve. NATO approaches a genuine 'national' or continental military authority, with elements of a 'national' or continental diplomatic authority as well, sort of a combined Department of Defense and State Department. The European Parliament provides an embryonic 'national' or continental political body through which democratic will could be exercised on a genuine federated government, just as two European Courts provide an embryonic 'national' or continental legal authority available for a genuine federated government. In a sense, all the various branches of government exist independently, but are not fused into a whole, rather like some associative creatures in which individual cells or organism come together to form a greater composite organism without being truly multi-cellular creatures.