ABSTRACT
One can compare the European Union (EU) to the so-called Rorschach test, the dark ink blot of the psychologist that conjures up widely diverse images in the minds of different observers. Unlike the ink stain, however, the EU has signifi cance, albeit one that is mostly misinterpreted. Often the business community gets it right, but due to self-interest supports the purple fog that surrounds it for reasons of camoufl age. Those on the political Left usually fail to see its real nature. They are devoted to the idea of a post-nationalist political Europe, a social Europe, a sustainable Europe or a Europe of regions. These are castles in the air. They are practically nowhere in the treaties, they exist only in the imaginations of euroenthusiasts who fail to see the wood of the free trade regime behind the tree of political symbolism.
