Against the term the 'EU Three'

[adjwilli]

It's no secret that the US's biggest economic rival is currently the EU. China is ascending on the list, but it's n ot quite there yet. If the EU continues to unify into a more than a loose multilateral organization, becoming like a single country, those individual countries pose more of a threat to US hegemonic interests.

It's also no secret that many of the issue that plague further unifation of Europe is the threat of large countries controling the smaller ones. France, Germany and Britain hold more sway than say Luxemburg. By inciting this fear, the US can indirectly hinder the further unification.

With all of that in mind, I read an interesting article today from, where else but, AP. In the headline they refer to Germany, France and Britain as the 'EU three,' as if the other EU countries don't matter. Later in the article, it reads "The so-called EU Three." But who calls them that aside from the conservative-mainstream US press? I did a quick Google search and the only other instances I could find of these three countries being called the 'EU Three' were in articles about Iranian nuclear arms. There were many instances of calling these countries the EU's Big Three and the like, but those are markedly different in that they are only big in reference to the other three countries, while simply calling them the 'EU Three' makes it sound as if there are only three countries in the EU.

PS. I forgot to add a link to the article:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&e=5&u=/afp/20040625/ts_afp/iran_nuclear_iaea_reax_040625190717

[Kellanved]

1. well

The term is not unknown in the EU itself. Not frequently used, but it is there - trust me on that. Of course the UK has managed to get in the offside (Soccer is the best sport to describe EU politics), together with Poland.

The main fear recently was, that France, Germany and BeNeLux might form a core union, but the issue is no longer on the table.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The term "Big Three" is commonly used in British news reports

though that disregards that Italy is just as big as the UK and France, and Spain and Poland aren't that far behind (both those are more than twice the size of the next biggest, the Netherlands). It seems to be the ambition of the governments that's being measured, not the countries' populations.