User blog comment:Ace009/Wikia's Vision of the Year 2100/@comment-26154170-20161222142037/@comment-26154170-20161222142915

While a Russian resurgence might legitimize the European Union, a federal Europe totally discards cultural differences, plus current nationalist and rightist movements are currently undermining the prospect. Also, whether you like it or not, the prospect of unequal power (if it pursues an asymmetric federal model, with power weighted on the population size) then the small states might be threatened by the perceived loss of sovereignty. Meanwhile, if it pursues a totally equal federal model in which all the states have equal power, it suddenly elevates the political power of previously insignificant European states to the same level to those dominant ones, which the latter will too fiercely oppose. Plus, the costs of reunification (considering all the interstate wealth disparities, plus economic reforms and displacement of currencies) will be direly high. In short, while closer cooperation is possible (especially in face of a Russian resurgence) a unified Europe doesn't make sense to me, at least.