Start from the top. Over the past half century, the European Union, the largest economy in the world, has been a spectacular success. On a blood-soaked continent, it has buried the worst xenophobic nationalism of the past without destroying patriotism. Its institutions have won acceptance for binding disputes settlement that has enabled the transformation of sovereignty through sharing it in an unprecedented number of sensitive areas. It is a union of nation states that has created something less than a federation and more than an alliance.
讓我們從宏觀層面說起。過去半個(gè)世紀(jì)里，世界第一大經(jīng)濟(jì)體歐盟(EU)取得了驚人的成功。在這片被鮮血浸染過的大陸上，歐盟在沒有摧毀愛國主義的情況下，成功埋葬了歷史上最極端的仇外民族主義。歐盟機(jī)構(gòu)的約束性爭端解決，為其贏得了認(rèn)可，這種機(jī)制通過在數(shù)量空前的敏感領(lǐng)域分享主權(quán)，實(shí)現(xiàn)了主權(quán)的轉(zhuǎn)變。這是一個(gè)民族國家的聯(lián)盟，它比聯(lián)邦差一點(diǎn)，但比同盟多一點(diǎn)。