My chum Andrew MacDowall has allowed me to copy this, his latest Facebook status. He is a journalist based in Belgrade.
Chat with a Belgrade taxi driver today: "We [Yugoslavia] were the European Union before the European Union!" He has a point, but perhaps not a reassuring one.
I think the Austro-Hungarian empire was the first European Union.
ReplyDeleteI'd go with the Holy Roman Empire.
ReplyDeletemarc
There is also the point that Switzerland - aka Confoederatio Helvetica - is the only real European Union.
ReplyDeleteI've long thought the real question is not << When will Switzerland be ready to join the European Union? >> but << When will the EU be ready to join Switzerland? >>
Mark Griffith