Author André Gauron is a member of the Council of Economic Advisors to the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

Contrasting the incompatible needs of France and Germany, Gauron suggests that it is more likely for the United States to break into separate units than for Europe to join together in a real union Poisonous chicken feed, mad cows and toxic wastes...

Contrasting the incompatible needs of France and Germany, Gauron suggests that it is more likely for the United States to break into separate units than for Europe to join together in a real union Poisonous chicken feed, mad cows and toxic wastes flowing from one country to another, diplomats working behind closed doors, national bureaucracies jealous of their prerogatives, Germany holding the rest of Europe in a monetary strait-jacket and the French dreaming of the days when they were a superpower - Andr Gauron regales us with the failures of this union and its chaotic progress. The author analyzes the historical, economic and political forces driving the dubious campaign for a unified Europe, where France and Germany say they want a partnership but each one wants to be chief and questions the "democratic" values of nations taking such enormous measures without involving the citizens.