will this recent expansion allow Europe to better compete with the US economically, or is it a mistake?
Europe hasn't a chance of competing with the US without subsidy, e.g airbus. The beauracracy does set standards which the US has to follow and try and influence by lobbying in Brussels as the size of the market is so large (480 million people) e.g GSM was a success. It is a beauracratic union that keeps unemployment high on purpose. It costs 25,000 euro to just register a company in Germany. If the US can stop printing money then the dollar goes back to parity with the Euro.