"is it safe to start referring to the EU as the "European Empire"?"
Of course it isn't
If the members of that group represent the interest of their own countries it means that control is shared, not centralised.
Empire as we understand it, is the domination of one people by the other in the interest of the ruling nation whose only duty towards the subject nations is to keep them profitable.
I have just finished reading a life-changing book, 'King Leopold's Ghost' by Adam Hochschild a must for those who would understand the true purpose of Empire
I showed how 'Gallant Little Belgium' in a relatively short period over the end of the 19th and biginning of the 20th centuries wiped out 10 million Congolese, basically by re-introducing slavery in pursuit of rubber.
I have to confess glow of loca pride to learn that it was a Liverpudlian shipping clerk who brought Emperor Leopold II to his knees - who said that scousers were all football obsessed yobs!!
Jim Carroll