Under the first discourse, European integration is a process by which independent, or even mutually hostile states, team up with each other to create a supra-national organization. Free trade, a single market, joint agricultural policies, joint diplomatic and security policies and the current joint monetary policies have been among the steps of the integration process. During the process, intergovernmental institutions and supra-national organizations were established, facilitating further integration. From the perspective of sociology, the EU equals the national and cultural assimilation of all European citizens, establishing an over-lapping identification with Europe, native country and local region. The union is symbolic of a future without war on European soil.
All European citizens are essentially a community with a joint destiny and a shared life.
This means that the two sides must not only respect each other as individual entities, but at the same time consider each other as components of one greater entity. Under these circumstances, the two sides may cooperate on the premise of a genuine mutual trust. In terms of integration mechanisms, the two sides could set up cross-strait organizations to deal with a number of problems. At the outset, the ROC and the PRC should try to create joint bodies that are not highly political. They could also set up a common community in the Strait for social safety to fight cross-strait smuggling and crime, and ensure social safety in Taiwan and China.