As a preface, this comes from the perspective of an American looking in on Europe. I'm curious in particular what any Europeans (please include your country of origin/ethnicity if you feel so inclined) feel about this post and the future of the EU.

Europe is a unique region, to put it lightly. The extremely high level of development relative to the rest of the world over this last millennium as well as so many technological innovations in that period of time led to a Europe ready to exert its influence upon the rest of the world. We can comfortably say that, while examples do still exist, colonialism as an institution has largely faded. Europe is a much more varied continent culturally and ethnically despite a space roughly equal to that of the USA. We've all heard the common sayings about 200 miles is long in Europe where 200 years is long in America and generally speaking that does hold true.
That said, Europe in the modern era really does feel like many small countries functioning as one big entity with the European Union. The EU has only gained credibility and legitimacy and it is now the institution I expect to hear from on matters within the EU first, even ahead of any individual nation state.
All of this to say, I think a united Europe is the strongest possible future for Europe. No individual state in Europe is large enough to exert an influence upon the world without the rest of Europe behind them. Globalization, while diminished in recent years, is still happening and I don't see a decentralized Europe as "winning" globalization as dozens of individually tiny states.

I could continue writing, but I think you understand my position. Now I would like to point to the article I found that really made me think about this, here.

I would also like to ask, what do you see Europe and the European Union standing for? Should it continue to centralize or is the current level of control enough? Too much? I didn't mention Ukraine or defense in this post but obviously that has a huge impact on all of these questions and I would love to hear if that has impacted your perspective on this admittedly grandiose idea for a united Europe.

People from all countries welcome to discuss, but please do mention your country if you feel comfortable doing so!

Edit: More reading for anyone interested.

I didn't find any great links so made this a self post. Here are some just from Google but they mainly just say what's on the tin:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-11/euro-plunges-to-fresh-two-decade-low-as-dollar-runs-rampant

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/investing/euro-dollar-parity/index.html

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/safe-haven-dollar-stands-tall-inflation-energy-jitters-2022-07-11/

As of 5:00 pm Eastern on July 11th 2022, if you check the exchange rate, the dollar is now 1:1 with the Euro.

In terms of effects, it seems complicated. Europe has a decently export heavy economy, unlike the US (for which only 10% of its GDP comes from manufacturing), so a weak Euro will help that.

However, it will make all imports more expensive. This is another supply shock, as most of continental Europe already faces heavy issues with regards to energy given the sanctions on Russia, one of the primary energy providers.

So it will certainly make domestic inflation worse (note: domestic inflation and the value of the currency on FX are different things - although they can mutually affect each other). If nothing else, the LNG Europe is buying from the US will be more expensive. The ECB has struggled to raise interest rates to fight inflation given Spain and Italy's high debt levels, and this won't help.

Winter could potentially be very, very bad.

For the US, a strong dollar is probably fine. The US is not a heavy export country, and the dollar surge helps cement reserve currency status from which the US gets a number of benefits. A slowdown in exports will also help tamper inflation.

The pound for the most part has tracked with the Euro, brexit or not.