United States of Europe it is not and never will be. There is just too much history and clashing of cultures for the EU to ever be more than an economic pact where, from time to time, the wealthier, geographically west and northern EU members bail out those members who are more eastward and southern.Besides the currency, I don't really see many benefits besides collective bargaining as a group of countries. The UK, all of northern Europe, France, and Germany will always give more to the EU than they get back in comparison to say, Greece. There are exceptions such as Ireland who is north and west geographically, but shares more in common with a bad economy more comparable to Spain than the UK.
If you look at the US, you find a similar pattern where the coastal states tend to give more to the Feds in taxes, while states such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana annually take more in Federal tax dollars. This giving and taking of tax dollars from the Feds is all dependent on individual state average income levels as shown in my source below.
Source: www.childpolicy.org/whatsnew/RichStatePoorStateRedStateBlueState2005.pdf
A book was written by Andrew Gelman who is one of the authors from the source I cited. The title is Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do. Briefly, what Americans think of Blue States (vote Democratic in Presidential elections) are wealthy, thus they give more in taxes to the Feds than they take; Red States (vote Republican in Presidential elections) are poor, thus they take more in taxes from the Feds than they give. There is more to it, but I have digressed too much.
