If the governments of the European Union can find any comfort in the gasoline price protests that have hopscotched across the continent in the last three weeks, it is this: The protesters seem to embody the new European ethic of working together across borders for common goals.The trouble began in France, the European country with the greatest penchant for taking to the streets, and most other governments in the EU initially dismissed the protests there as just another domestic quarrel. But soon, people outraged by rising fuel prices seemed to be venting their feelings everywhere. They shut down the center of Brussels, the EU capital, nearly paralyzed Britain, and are continuing disruptions in Spain and Germany.