What's Wrong With A Centralized Europe? Plenty

Many political leaders in Europe consider the euro to be a major step toward greater concentration of power by European Community bureaucrats in Brussels. I fear that further centralization of power would be bad for their economies by reducing the competition among governments for business.

It is often claimed that government competition should be avoided because it produces a "race to the bottom," with companies discouraging regulations and taxes by threatening to move to more pliable nations. Although migration of business sometimes does limit the ability of states to implement the right policies, there is little evidence that European taxes and regulations have been kept down excessively by intergovernmental competition. The average European country devotes about half its gross domestic product to the public sector, far more than enough to support proper government activities. It also extensively regulates business, labor markets, and other activities.