Yeah but I think many of the states in the European Union are coming to realize that shared currency is fatal if they can't control economic legislation.

To that degree I meant a real merging of two countries, currencies, legislation, politics, everything.

Yes, the EU has those advantages, but it's bloated, unwieldy, mainly tries to serve the interests of Germany (biggest economy) and is ill-structured to deal with the type of problems currently affiliating the 'peripherals' (or 'PIGS': Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain). The features of a common monetary policy are great when times are good, but allows the problems of one nation to spread like a virus when times are bad. So it's a double-edged sword.

I find that statement a bit weird. Germany are on the hook for something like 120 billion in this bailout. That's €1500 for every man, woman and child in the country.

And that's after essentially funding the EU for the past 20 years. Though things have levelled a bit of late, they used to have net contributions about 3x higher than the next one (the UK).

But which is actually worse off right now? If the currency markets are anything to go by, the GBP has sunk from 1.5 to 1.2 Euros, and that's after the beating the Euro has taken in recent months.