In our world
The European Union grew out of the coal and steel community of 1951 and the Treaties of Rome of 1957. Maastricht turned the Common Market into a Union in 1992, and on 1 January 1999 eleven members launched the euro. Defence stayed with NATO: the Union's foreign policy was a matter for unanimous agreement between governments, and Britain made sure it stayed that way.
In TND
The Union that enters 2000 is a far more federal one. The Eastern Bloc fell in 1987, a decade early, and Poland, Czechia and the Baltic states were inside the Union before the century ended. The Gulf War and the split over Yugoslavia taught Paris, Berlin and Rome that they could not count on Washington - and Britain, the brake on every federal step, voted to leave in 1996 and was gone by the end of 1997.
Without a British veto the Treaty of Amsterdam gave the Union a common foreign policy and put defence under Brussels. The euro launched in 1999 with a joint economic government and a shared budget. And at Cologne on 3 June 1999 the Union replaced what was left of NATO in Europe with a European Defence Union: a standing joint force led by Germany, with France, Italy and the Low Countries beside it.
On paper it is the world's newest great power. In practice its armies have never fought together, its voters built it to keep the peace rather than to fight, and nobody has yet settled whether it is steered from Paris or from Berlin.
Who is in what
Three circles, each inside the next. A country is shown once, in the innermost circle it belongs to.
The European Union
Every member of the Union also uses the euro.
The eurozone
In the Union and the euro, not (yet) in the Defence Union. The Defence Union can invite them through its joint focus branch, at a cost in cohesion.
Spain
Portugal
Austria
Finland
Denmark
Sweden
Czech Republic
Estonia
Latvia
LithuaniaThe European Defence Union
Led by Germany. In the Union, the euro and the joint force.
Belgium
Netherlands
LuxembourgNot in the Union: 
United Kingdom
Greece
Romanian Union
Bulgaria
Hungary
The Defence Union: cohesion and collapse
Defence Union cohesion
Collapse0-1
Every member loses its spirits, gets the collapse spirit for two years, and the faction empties.
Fractured1-25
Penalties for every member.
Untested25-60
Where the Union starts: an army on paper.
Integrated60-100
Bonuses: one army in all but name.
Founded at Cologne in 1999 under German leadership: Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, a faction with a standing joint force. Other EU members can be invited through the Defence Union's joint focus branch, at a cost in cohesion.
Cohesion (0-100, starts 40) decides the Union's spirit: 60 or more Integrated (bonuses), 25-59 Untested, 1-24 Fractured (penalties), and at 0 the Union collapses: every member is stripped of its spirits and the faction empties.
What moves it: a member leaving democracy (-15, then -2 a month), declaring a war (-15, or -50 on another member, then -1 a month in an offensive war), one member holding over 40% of the members' factories (-2 a month), a democratic leader at peace (+1 a month), and the Defence Union decisions: Fund the Joint Force, Joint Exercises, an Emergency Defence Summit, or the other way, Veto the Joint Budget and Demand National Opt-Outs.
After A Union in Arms the Union can never collapse: cohesion stops at 1. Members can still walk out on their own.
The Union's spirits
The tier spirit follows cohesion; A Union of Pacifists also bars Limited Conscription, Partial Economic Mobilisation and every law above them.
European Defence Union: Untested
Cohesion 25-59 - the start
The standing joint force agreed at the Cologne summit on 3 June 1999 exists mostly on paper: national armies that have never fought together, and voters who never wanted to fight at all.
- -5% army organisation
- -5% army training time
- -5% war support
- -10% stability in offensive wars
European Defence Union: Integrated
Cohesion 60 or more
Joint command, shared procurement and years of exercises have turned the Union’s armies into one force. Europe will defend itself - though it still has no appetite for conquest.
- +5% army organisation
- -10% army training time
- +10% army experience gain
European Defence Union: Fractured
Cohesion 1-24
Vetoes, opt-outs and recriminations have left the Defence Union a hollow shell that nobody trusts to come to their aid.
- -10% army organisation
- -10% war support
- -20% stability in offensive wars
- -5% stability
A Union of Pacifists
Until A Union in Arms
Europe’s voters built the Defence Union to keep the peace, not to fight. No government can ask them for conscripts or a war economy until the Union is truly one army. Members cannot adopt Limited Conscription or Partial Economic Mobilisation, or any law above them.
- -15% war support
- +50% war goal justification time
- -10% stability in offensive wars
Collapse of the Defence Union
Two years after a collapse
The Defence Union has fallen apart. Officers recalled, programmes cancelled and treaties torn up: it will take years to rebuild national defence and trust between Europe’s capitals.
- -10% stability
- -0.15 political power a day
- -10% army organisation
- -5% maximum factory efficiency
Ending A Union of Pacifists
Only one way lifts it for the whole Union; the others take it off one country by taking that country out of the Defence Union. New members get the spirit when they join, unless A Union in Arms has been completed - and a country that walks out can never be invited back.
National focuses that leave the Union, and so drop the spirit:
Ireland
France
Germany
Italy
Poland
The Franco-German engine
Who drives Europe, Paris or Berlin? One meter, pulled both ways by France's Franco-German Engine decisions and Germany's Leading Europe decisions.
Paris’s lead in Europe
A German Europe0-20
Berlin’s lead pays Germany in influence and political power; an extreme drains the Union’s cohesion.
Berlin Sets the Pace20-40
Germany drives the Union.
The Tandem40-60
Stability, research and trade; now and then it raises the Union’s cohesion.
Paris Sets the Pace60-80
France drives the Union.
A Europe From Paris80-100
Political power, influence and war support for France; an extreme drains the Union’s cohesion.
Who leads Europe: one meter, Paris's lead from 0 (a German Europe) to 100 (a Europe run from Paris). It is France's, shown in France's Franco-German Engine decisions and Germany's Leading Europe decisions. It starts at 45, a little towards Berlin, which leads the Defence Union.
The ranges: A Europe From Paris (80-100: political power, influence, war support for France), Paris Sets the Pace, the Tandem (40-60: stability, research and trade), Berlin Sets the Pace, A German Europe (0-20). Germany has a spirit that follows the same ranges: Berlin's lead pays it in influence and political power, Paris's costs it.
France pulls towards Paris with Set the Agenda in Brussels and the Empty Chair, or towards the middle with a Blaesheim Dinner; Germany pulls back with the Chancellor's Summit, Guardian of the Pact, Frankfurt Decides, Enlarge to the East, Write the Cheque and Call Paris's Bluff, or mends the Tandem. Each side can also propose a joint initiative to the other.
The Union: while France is in the Defence Union, the Tandem raises the Union's cohesion now and then and either extreme drains it. Reaching either end fires an event once. A road that takes France out of the Union ends the engine.
The Eurosceptic challenge
A member’s euroscepticism
Fringe0-25
Costs a little stability and political power.
Breakthrough25-50
A eurosceptic party breaks through.
In parliament50-75
The member drains the Union’s cohesion by 1 a month.
Referendum75-100
It demands a vote on leaving; at 100 it takes power and the member leaves, unless it pays for a grand coalition.
Every Defence Union member has its own Euroscepticism (0-100, starting at 10-20), which costs up to 15% stability and 20% political power.
Thresholds: at 25 a eurosceptic party breaks through; at 50 it enters parliament, and the member drains the Union's cohesion by 1 a month; at 75 it demands a referendum on leaving; at 100 it takes power and the member leaves, unless it pays for a grand coalition. A Remain vote resets the score to 25 and adds cohesion.
It drifts by itself: +2 a month while Russian money flows, +1 under 40% stability or in a Fractured Union, -1 over 70% stability or in an Integrated Union.
Answers: fund the fact-checkers, spread the cohesion funds, expose the foreign money (it ends Russia's funding and raises Russian Provocation), win a Brussels opt-out (it costs cohesion), ban the party, or call a referendum to settle it.
Russia can Fund the Eurosceptics, then fund a member's party, run troll farms, offer gas discounts and bankroll a referendum once a member is at 65 or more.
The joint focus tree
The Cologne Mandate is a 94-focus joint branch beside each member's own tree. Every EU member can see it, but only Defence Union members can start its focuses, and because it is shared it runs faster than a national tree.
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The European Recovery
After the 2008 crash every EU member shares the 24-focus European Recovery branch instead of its own recovery focuses.
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The Union's other spirits
European Union
Every member
A federal-minded union since Amsterdam: a common foreign and defence policy, and since 1999 a single currency run by a joint economic government.
- +5% research speed
- +5% maximum factory efficiency
- +25% trade opinion
- +5% stability
- +25% war goal justification time
Eurozone
Every eurozone member
The euro and the joint economic government launched in 1999: stable money, pooled sovereignty.
- +5% factory output
- -5% consumer goods
- -10% political power gain