1. The sole initiator of legislation is the European Commission - unelected. The supreme political leadership is the European Council - not directly elected. The European Parliament is a rubber stamp for the Commission, which rules by directives (decrees) issued ex cathedra and enforced by a technocratic bureaucracy answerable to nobody. If the EU is to be democratic then all three of these bodies must be directly elected in Europe-wide elections and Parliament must be the only body with legislative powers.

2. Clearly, the Germans have not been kept down. By the 1970s, West Germany had overtaken France as Europes' major economic power. France only retained any influence by getting the UK into the EEC and then using us as their piggy-bank. United Germany is even more of a powerhouse and since the Soviet collapse has been grabbing as much Eastern European lebensraum as it can.

3. It's not, never has been, about economics. Only the UK, the USA and Japan give a fuck about economics. For the rest of the world it's about dominance. France and Germany are both determined to establish cultural and political hegemony in mainland Europe. That's been going on since the Napoleonic Wars, it's the conflict that dominated the early 20th Century and it's going on now, though not openly at the moment. But as soon as an excuse is found or manufactured, they'll be at it again! Why else do you think that the French scream blue bloody murder every time the Germans suggest building up their defence capability?