> What sources are you relying on, and how do they contradict the above?
Eurostat Yearbook 2006, Table 6.2, page 153, GDP for 2005 at market exchange rates:
EU-27 10.82 trillion EUR US 10.04 trillion EUR
Source: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-CD-06-001-06/EN/KS-CD-06-001-06-EN.PDF
In 2005, the EU-27 was already 8% bigger than the US. Add a year, throw in Switzerland and Norway, regions which trade and invest mostly in their European neighbors, and are enmeshed in a web of EU diplomacy and legislation, and you have a geopolitical space which is easily 10-15% bigger than the US.
-- DRR