Europa / Europe and the EU + EEA

Instead, he [ Draghi] aims pragmatically at some immediate initiatives for true integration in areas such as defence, industrial policy, taxation or foreign affairs, for states willing to do so. If necessary outside the Union, and without other members preventing them from doing so, but leaving them the choice of joining later.

Draghi’s federalistic approach comes down to the kind experienced through the Schengen Agreement on free movement, which started among five countries in 1985 and was first legally established outside the EU. Yet this time, it is about competences as stark as defence.