As an American, that's insane sounding to me. Without financial sovereignty the American revolution would have never happened. And we'd still be ruled by monarchs.
It is insane to me to be in discussions like this and see Europeans trust their government more than they trust their mothers. Literally every time in history they've gotten complacent with their governments their governments tried to kill them all, and still they never learn.
Maybe that's the point? It's hard to be authoritarian if people can rebel. Some EU politicians (Verhofstadt) have been talking about the "European Empire".
