Why the EU is not an 'Empire'

History has it that, when an aide informed then-MEP Otto von Habsburg about an upcoming football match between Austria and Hungary, the relative of Emperor Franz Joseph asked against whom they would be playing?

Although the last emperors on the continent were disposed, killed or exiled after the Great War of 1914-1918, the concept of Empire continues to fascinate contemporary European intellectuals from both sides of the spectre.

Ardent Brexiteers in the UK depict the EU as the ...