European Union and Setting World Standards (Integration Project)

The Belmont Club has a very interesting pair of articles relating to standardization and market economy by the EU. Look here and here.

Kagan's analysis, though brilliant, should not tempt us too far. The European project is more than a vehicle to attain mankind's loftiest aims. It is also an ordinary bureaucracy concerned with enforcing trade protectionism, distributing pork barrel, advancing agendas and accumulating power for its own sake as bureaucracies have done from time immemorial.

Kagan does some good analysis on how Europe came to itself and its current aims.