Canonically, the Imperium will not permit the accession of multiple worlds
as a single member polity; each world must accede separately. No reason for
this restriction is given.

However, the Imperium does effectively allow multi-world polities to form
and exist within it:

a. Some worlds' governments are responsible to off-world control (most with
   UWP government type 6 [Captive Government]; some perhaps with gov 1
   [Corporate]).

b. The Imperium permits worlds to associate themselves in certain ways,
   each of which individually has some of the characteristics of a
   multi-world polity:

   1. Customs Union. This is effectively border control, where the general
      assumption is that if you qualify for entry into one of the CU's
      member worlds, you may transit to any of the others without issue.
      This also generally applies to importing goods from outside the CU;
      once such goods have been 'passed' by the world they enter at, they
      may be shipped within the worlds of the CU without the need for
      recertification.

   2. Postal Union. Effectively the same thing, for mail, plus a PU also
      will harmonize rates for postage between members of the PU.

   3. Culture: If the associating worlds all have significant populations
      from a single common culture, they may petition to be designated a
      "cultural area" for that culture, and to form a "cultural
      association". The latter, if permitted to be formed, is not itself a
      government for the worlds of the cultural area, but often can, in
      many ways, "pass" as one if you don't look too hard.

So, if a particular group of worlds, all of which are Elbonian, form the
Elbonian Worlds Postal Union, the Elbonian Worlds Customs Union, and their
petitions to be designated the Elbonian Cultural Area and form the Elbonian
Cultural Association are granted, how are they not in fact (if not in law)
a multi-world polity?

* Under the auspices of the EWCU, the individual worlds may harmonize their
  laws regarding entry by outsiders - effectively combining the worlds into
  a "Schengen Area". Since those laws may well be recommended to the EWCU
  by the ECA, there is now a "common border" defining the Elbonian
  pseudo-polity.

* Defense of the EPP is in the hands of the Imperium, as it is with any
  Imperial world. Local control of armed forces isn't a necessity for a
  defined polity; consider, for example, Andorra, whose defense is in the
  hands of the French and Spanish governments.

* Worlds may have their own currencies, defined in any way that seems
  appropriate for them. Which means that the worlds of the EPP can have a
  common local currency in addition to the Imperial credit.  Or not;
  consider that Ecuador does not have a local currency at all; its currency
  board has declared the US dollar to be the state's legal tender currency.

Thus, the only thing that's really "pseudo" about the EPP is that the
Imperium does not _recognize_ it as a polity. Which brings us back to the
question of why? We have something that looks like a duck, walks like a
duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, but isn't a duck because
Farmer Indadell has refused to say that it's a duck.

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