What happened to the European ideal?

"People suffered of centuries of wars in Europe, tried so many times to stop what seemed an inexorable repetition of bloody confrontations. Not long after the First and the Second World wars, what has probably been the lowest point of history, came the most ambitious project, the only one that could cure Europe for good, the European Union. We take now for granted peace in Europe. It appears so fundamental and natural. The project of the European Union has not been built by romantic people bored in their bourgeois living rooms. It has been made by necessity. The real ideal behind the euro is not to make international corporations richer, it is that commerce between nations prevent them from going to war. Democracy and freedom is not so much about individualistic rhetoric, but is an effective way to prevent a country’s elite to declare war without a real necessity for its population. The point is that all of this is working! After centuries of blood, we have now found a way to prevent war."

Source: http://bruchansky.name/2009/06/09/what-happened-to-the-european-ideal/