The European Union the superpower of the 21st century, the European Century?

An interesting contradiction. The article take a jingoistic tone about a Europe that is completely devoid of jingoism. And a little out of date about terror attacks, given that the three worst terror attacks in the western world since 2005 have all been in Europe (Madrid train bombing, London train bombing, Scotland airport attack). But it does have a point that Europe's influence is increasing, and that a lot of that can be attributed to the unification. Can you imagine the U.S. unifying with anyone? Conservatives would go ape ****. Maybe this is another strength of the European Union, i.e. that their conservatives are actually sane. And they are also in power in Germany and France, with the UK not far behind. It used to be that Reagan and Thatcher represented the conservative viewpoint in the western world. Today's conservative in the U.S. makes Reagan and Thatcher look like Bolsheviks.