This is what the
European Union should be like, but unfortunately it is so far away from the
ASEAN model any
European who cares about the
national sovereignity of their nation might as well give up and move to the
United States.
ASEAN gets down to
business and does not try to involve itself with matters that it should ignore. Unlike the
European Union, the half
communist, half
socialist dictatorship that infringes on other nations'
business every single chance it gets.
ASEAN is a loose coalition of Southeast Asian nations. The bureaucrats hold little to no power whatsoever, which is good, given the abusive nature of any oversized bureaucratic machine. ASEAN is mainly focused on trade and business matters, which makes it that much more efficient than the EU. It is also fairly conservative, which is a good thing. Given, they are fairly slow, but it is an international political organization, and hey, better spend nothing and do nothing than to spend billions on building a tyrannical socialist superstate!
OK, I'll admit ASEAN was pretty useless dealing with the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, but that wasn't what it was designed for. ASEAN is a simple, streamlined method for Southeast Asian nations to come to financial agreements, which is about as far as any international organization should go. Anything more would infringe on their national sovereignities. The EU better downsize really fast before something really bad happens.