I suspect many Europeans would bristle at the suggestion that Europe could learn a thing or two from American history. If the E.U. corresponds to the U.S. and has a federal balance-of-power roughly the same as that which existed in the U.S. at, say, 1820, then the Europeans could do worse than look at American history for lessons both in what to emulate and what not to do.
The complete essay is at "Essays on Two Federal Empires."