The EU

What are the origins of European integration, and how far back in time do we need to travel to pick up these first stirrings. Do we have to at all?   I'd like to begin this conversation by taking us back to the Congress of Vienna as this will allow a theoretical discussion on what motivated the nation states at the time to develop a 'Concert of Europe'  What was the origin of the idea of the balance of power?  How did European leaders apply its principles in actual practice?  If we fast forward to today, can we argue whether the notion of a balance of power still applies within the European region?  Is the balance now a balance based on financial muscle and do the nation states of Europe feel it necessary to balance against Germany's new-found power?  Is the EU now centralized sufficiently to prevent the states on the margins from spinning away? Does the very economic union created by the EU encourage the latent nationalism that simmers below the surface in Catalonia and Scotland? Will the Lega Nord  fianlly win independece for the North from the South in Italy?  To my mind, any discussion on concepts such as the balance of power must include a treatment on nationalism and all its ramifications.  This will be the point of departure for this book.