"Mr Very Angry" is an idiot. Modern-day France and Germany are solid democracies (currently both with highly-unpopular leaders). In order to create an "empire" they would have to act as a single sovereign power (impossible, I'd say, as that would require their own democracies to be ditched) and sweep aside 26 other democracies, each of which is highly individualistic and possessed of national pride, in order to reign over them. Well we'd have to endure the collapse of western civilisation to get anywhere near anything like that. The structure of the EU simply does not permit moves in that direction, what with powers of veto all over the place and a constitution that requires unanimous consensus on all major issues. Quite frankly, it's just ridiculous talk. I suppose it makes an unrefreshing change from hearing about "having our laws imposed on us by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels." I'd say the chances of your fearmongering prediction coming about are around 0.00001 percent. And with the UK in the EU, 0.000001 percent.