Personally i would prefer trade union, as EU countries have shown themselves already incapable of offering support in case of any real threat due to conflicting

Personally i would prefer trade union, as EU countries have shown themselves already incapable of offering support in case of any real threat due to conflicting interests, and federation would most likely end up being run by Germany/France duopoly. also look at energy and AI initiatives for examples of top down initiatives. In most non-western EU countries the only realistic way to get a tech startup going is via EU grant process which is extremely top down with keywords they want for specific year, and basically prevents any form of pivoting as a business. It's not some top brass of party, soviet style, making top-down decisions. Its the whole system that's designed to operate that way - bureaucrats here and there incentivized to do so, committee here and there setting up guidelines for results. what they should do is to setup a framework in which results emerge.