The European Union: sovereignty lost or multiplied?

The Central Question

Does the European Union produce sovereignty or destroy it? Are French citizens more or less in control of their economic, political, and strategic destiny than in 1992, at the time of the Maastricht referendum?

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Each Member’s Final Position

Maxime Vauban (The Builder)

• Core argument: Europe excels at regulating, not building. The GDPR, the DMA, the DSA are brilliant — but where is the European cloud? Where are the tech champions? China and the United States build, Europe redistributes.
• Key evidence: 0 of the 20 largest global tech companies is European. European R&D at 2.3% of GDP vs. 3.5% in the US and 2.4% in China. The digital single market remains fragmented.
• Changed mind on: Conceded to Moreau that the absence of an explicit European constitution creates a legitimacy deficit. Partial rallying to Delacroix on the need for autonomous European defense.

Seraphine Delacroix (The Boss)

• Core argument: Europe is indispensable and insufferable. Without it, France would be Switzerland without the money. With it, France is constrained by rules designed for a union that is neither a state nor a confederation, but an institutional monster without equivalent.
• Key evidence: The ECB spent 8,800 billion euros in QE without a democratic vote. Germany built Nord Stream 2 despite French opposition. The CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) captures 30% of the European budget for 4% of the active population.
• Changed mind on: Admits Dumas is right: Europe has neither mystique nor sword. It cannot build a demos without a shared existential threat — and Russia is not enough.

Gabriel Bastiat (The Economist)

• Core argument: Europe suffers from poor allocation of capital and labor. Intra-European mobility is low (3% of foreign EU residents vs. 40% interstate in the United States). National budgets remain siloed. What’s missing is a true single market for labor and capital.
• Key evidence: Productivity divergence between EU countries (GDP/hour worked: +60% in Ireland, -40% in Bulgaria vs. average). Sovereign interest rate dispersion despite monetary union. Cost of non-Europe estimated at 500 billion EUR/year.
• Changed mind on: Conceded to Grimal that intra-European tax competition has perverse effects. Accepts that a 25% tax floor wouldn’t be the end of the world — but refuses any ceiling.

Leonie Marchand (The Voice of the People)

• Core argument: Nobody understands Europe, so nobody loves it. It’s a marriage of convenience without a marriage contract. Decisions are made by people nobody elected, in languages nobody speaks, for reasons nobody understands.
• Key evidence: 43% abstention in European elections (2024). 70% of French people cannot name a single MEP. The European Parliament has no legislative initiative of its own — the Commission decides.
• Changed mind on: Unexpected rallying to Vauban on the need for common defense — “if we can’t defend ourselves alone, we might as well own it.”

Augustin Moreau (The Jurist)

• Core argument: Europe suffers from an original constitutional vice: it was never founded by a democratic constituent moment. Maastricht was ratified at 51%, Lisbon was imposed after the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty. European law takes precedence without explicit popular legitimacy.
• Key evidence: Primacy of EU law established by the CJEU, not by treaty. The European Parliament has no legislative initiative. The ECB is independent to the point of being beyond democratic control.
• Changed mind on: Admits Bastiat is right on the inefficient allocation of capital — but maintains that the institutional framework is the root cause.

Claire Beaumont (The Writer)

• Core argument: Europe is the continent that no longer knows how to tell its own story. It produced the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and now it produces directives. “Europe is indispensable and insufferable” — this phrase resonated through the entire assembly.
• Changed mind on: Converges with Dumas: without shared mystique, without a common narrative, Europe will never be more than a free-trade zone with technical standards.

Raphael Noir (The Demolisher)

• Core argument: Europe is a system of domination masked as partnership. Germany exports its industrial model, France its bureaucracy, the Netherlands and Ireland their tax dumping. The small countries pay the bill.
• Key evidence: Germany had a 250-billion-euro trade surplus in 2022, 150 billion within the eurozone. The Netherlands capture 4,700 billion EUR in financial flows (15 times their GDP) thanks to their tax regime. Greece lost 25% of its GDP between 2008 and 2016.
• Changed mind on: Concedes that Frexit would be a disaster — but maintains that the current Europe serves capital, not peoples.

Lucie Grimal (The Materialist)

• Core argument: Europe is a structure in the service of capital. The single market facilitates the mobility of capital, not of workers. The ECB saves banks, not the unemployed. The Maastricht criteria impose austerity on peoples to protect creditors.
• Key evidence: European public debt of 12,000 billion EUR, of which 8,800 monetized by the ECB — the largest wealth transfer toward asset holders in history. Posted workers grew from 1.3 million (2010) to 3.4 million (2022).
• Changed mind on: Unexpected convergence with Durand and Marchand: Europe facilitates the mobility of capital, hinders that of labor. Explicit agreement with Bastiat on the need for tax harmonization — but she wants a floor, he refuses a ceiling.

Satoshi Durand (The Cypherpunk)

• Core argument: The euro is a currency without a state, and that is precisely the problem. The ECB prints 8,800 billion EUR without a democratic vote. Citizens have no alternative — exit is impossible. This is Hayek inverted: a monetary monopoly without market discipline.
• Key evidence: ECB balance sheet from 1,500 to 8,800 billion EUR (2008-2022). No referendum on QE. Citizens cannot choose their currency — the euro is imposed.
• Changed mind on: Conceded to Moreau that the institutional architecture is deficient. Partial rallying to Grimal: the euro serves creditors, not debtors.

Aminata Kouyate (The Pragmatist)

• Core argument: Europe saved the French economy in 2008, funds forgotten territories via structural funds, and imposed minimum social standards. But it also imposed austerity, tolerated tax dumping, and let posted workers undercut collective agreements.
• Key evidence: France receives 14 billion EUR/year in European funds. The Keynesian multiplier of European investments is estimated at 1.8. But posted workers earn 30-50% less than locals for the same work.
• Changed mind on: Convergence with Grimal and Marchand: Europe facilitates the mobility of capital, hinders that of labor. Agreement on the need for a European minimum wage at 60% of national median.

Colonel Pierre Dumas (The Strategist)

• Core argument: Europe has neither mystique nor sword. A political union cannot exist without a shared threat and a willingness to die together. Europe has neither. European defense is a fiction — 80% of arms procurement is national.
• Key evidence: European military spending of 240 billion EUR/year, but no integrated army. NATO remains the operational framework. Germany refused to export weapons to Ukraine via third countries in 2022. France intervened alone in Mali.
• Changed mind on: Conceded to Delacroix that France alone cannot defend itself against a great power. Accepts that European defense is necessary — but doubts it is possible without political federation.

Professeur Socrate (The Questioner)

• Key interventions:
  • “If Europe destroys national sovereignty, why do Germany and France have such different policies?”
  • “If Europe serves capital, why does French business complain so much about European standards?”
  • “Can a European demos be built without a common language, without shared memory, without a common enemy?”
  • “If Frexit is ruled out, why would the current arrangement be negotiable?”

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Points of Agreement

• Frexit would be economic and strategic suicide — Unanimous
• The current EU architecture is dysfunctional — Unanimous (but diagnoses diverge)
• The ECB wields colossal power without proportional democratic control — Strong majority
• Europe is brilliant at regulating, mediocre at building — Majority
• Intra-European tax competition is a real problem — Bastiat-Grimal-Kouyate convergence
• The European defense architecture is inoperative — Unanimous
• Europe lacks democratic legitimacy — Strong majority

Points of Disagreement

• Nature of the economic problem: inefficient allocation (Bastiat) vs. structure serving capital (Grimal) vs. currency without discipline (Durand)
• Role of the state in the economy: Chicago vs. ordoliberal vs. Marxist vs. Keynesian vs. Austrian
• Can a European demos be built? Moreau (yes, via constitution) vs. Dumas (no, without shared mystique)
• Is sovereignty national or individual? Dumas vs. Durand

Best Emergent Ideas

• “Europe is indispensable and insufferable” — Claire’s formula that drew consensus
• Unexpected Grimal-Durand-Marchand convergence: Europe facilitates the mobility of capital, hinders that of labor
• “A marriage of convenience without a marriage contract” — Leonie on the absence of a democratic constituent moment
• “Neither mystique nor sword” — Dumas on the impossibility of a demos without a shared threat and a common willingness to sacrifice
• Europe as masked domination — Noir/Grimal: Germany exports its model, the Netherlands their tax dumping, France pays

What We Don’t Know

• The causal decomposition of intra-European economic divergence (institutional vs. cultural vs. historical share)
• The net impact of ECB QE on inequality (contradictory data)
• The political feasibility of a European constitution after the 2005 and 2008 failures
• The strategic threat threshold needed to trigger real European federation
• The compatibility between national sovereignty and deeper economic integration
• How to build democratic legitimacy at continental scale without a common language

Recommended Actions

Ranked by level of support within the assembly:

1. Organize a European constitutional convention with citizen lottery + elected deputies, 2-year mandate, ratification by referendum in each country. (Majority)
2. Exclude public investment from deficit calculations — revised European golden rule. (Majority: Kouyate-Grimal-Vauban-Moreau)
3. Create a European DARPA with a 10-billion-EUR/year budget to close the technology gap. (Strong majority)
4. Impose a military spending floor at 2.5% of GDP with pooled arms procurement. (Majority)
5. Harmonize corporate taxation with an effective minimum rate of 25%. (Majority — Bastiat accepts the floor, refuses the ceiling)
6. Create a European minimum wage at 60% of national median salary. (Significant minority: Grimal-Kouyate-Marchand)
7. Reform the posted workers regime: same salary, same contributions as locals. (Majority)
8. Institute an automatic sunset clause on all European regulation after 10 years unless explicitly renewed. (Significant minority: Bastiat-Vauban-Durand)
9. Build a sovereign European cloud with a 20-billion-EUR investment over 5 years. (Majority)
10. Create a mechanism for inter-regional fiscal transfers at the European level (modeled on Germany’s Finanzausgleich). (Significant minority: Kouyate-Grimal-Moreau)