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1. Are you forced into epic levels? Does a L20 fighter have to take epic L1 fighter with his next class level, or could he take plain-old L1 barbarian*?
Yes & no. When your character level exceeds 20, you no longer gain BAB or saves based on your class, but instead use the Epic Attack and Saving throw bonuses. The normal feats gained every 3 levels can be used for Epic feats after 20th level. Otherwise, a level-20 fighter can take his 1st level of Barbarian at 21st level if he wants to.

If he can take barbarian, does he get a level of "epic" barbarian or just "regular" barbarian?
Well, no matter what, after 20th level, he's an Epic character, so he uses Epic Attack and Saving throw bonuses no matter what class he takes. He gains the class benefits of a 1st level barbarian, because that's how many class levels he has.

2. What about someone who multiclassed? When a L6 ranger/L7 Barbarian/L7 fighter takes a level, does he take an "epic" level (probably epic ranger to avoid multiclass penalties), or a plain level in one of his three classes*?
There's no such thing as an "epic" class level. There are only higher levels available only to Epic characters. An Epic character is defined as having more than 20 levels total. The multiclassed character listed above can take any class he wants to, but once his total level exceeds 20, he uses the Epic rules for BAB & Saves instead of class BAB and saves.

I'll go ahead and add a few minor clarifying points, because things can get a bit confusing.
1.) Characters use epic BAB & saves when their total HD exceeds 20. Monsters, I'm sorry to say, don't follow this rule.
2.) Characters cannot take Epic feats, even if they meet all the prerequisites, until their Effective Character Level exceeds 20. Similarly, characters cannot exceed 10 levels in a 10-level Prestige Class until their Effective Character Level exceeds 20. A Paladin 20 who takes 1 level of Blackguard cannot trade in all 20 levels of Paladin to get bonus Epic Feats.
3.) Epic feats can only be gained from the feats gained every three levels (21, 24, 27, etc.) or from Bonus Epic feats granted from levels 21+ in core classes, or 11+ in 10-level Prestige Classes.
4.) Characters at Epic Level gain new epic-level abilities through the use of Epic Feats, rather than by class features. Epic feats are the drivers of character progression, not class levels. Taking more than 20 levels in a base class, or more than 10 levels in a 10-level PrC, grants Bonus Epic feats to reflect more power.

One last point to finish this off, because any discussion of Epic rules invariably comes across this item. The classic comparison is between two 40th level characters. One takes 20 levels of Fighter, then 20 levels of Wizard (at Epic levels), and has a BAB of +30 (base 20, plus 10 from Epic levels), with four iterative attacks, and full spellcasting. The other starts with 20 levels of Wizard, then takes 20 levels of figther; he only has a BAB of +20 (base 10, plus 10 from Epic levels) and two iterative attacks, but the exact same spellcasting. Many folks consider this to be an example of how the Epic rules don't work; those folks are idiots, specifcially because of point #4 above.

Our 40th level Wizard 20/Fighter 20 has seven Epic feats that can be used to boost his spellcasting further, and could cast, for example, all their spells Stilled, while wearing full plate mail and usign a shield. He could use Metamagic to cast up to 16th level spells, or lower that number slightly and use even more Metamagic with Improved Metamagic. And that's not even mentioning Epic Spellcasting, or crafting Epic Magic items. Our 40th level Fighter 20/Wizard 20 would have one Epic feat that could be used to boost his spellcasting, since he only gets 9th level spells at level 37. On the other hand, with his high attack values, he could probably have Devestating Critical...

A L6 Ranger/L7 Fighter/L7 Barbarian takes further levels of fighter. He could not take epic feats as his bonus fighter feats because he did not yet reach L20 in fighter. However, he can take epic feats with the feats he gets from every 3 character levels. Correct?

Correct.

A wizard 5/Loremaster 7/Monk 8 starts taking epic levels. Until he gets to L9 spells (whether by taking Loremaster or Wizard levels to reach a caster level of 17) he cannot take the epic spell enhancing feats. Correct?

It depends on the feat. Enhance Spell is an epic feat with a prerequisite of Maximize spell. This character could take that epic feat.
Improved Spell Capacity has a prerequisite of "Ability to cast spells of the normal maximum spell level in at least one spellcasting class", meaning a Paladin 15/Fighter 6 could take this feat, since he's maxed out his spellcasting for Paladin.
The Epic Spellcasting and Automatic Metamagic feats require being able to cast 9th level spells. So until your example character gained 5 more levels in wizard and/or Loremaster, they couldn't take the feat.

Does the 3.0 Epic Handbook still apply in 3.5? Does it offer a greater variety of fair feats? Is it worth getting?

The 'crunch' of the ELH is mostly in the SRD, and is updated to 3.5 rules. You can check it out over at www.d20srd.org and see the rules for yourself.
The flavor-text in the ELH is actually fairly important for understanding the 'how' and 'why' of Epic. It contains an Epic setting (which most folks find ho-hum) and a sample Epic adventure. If you want to use the Epic rules, you'll probably need to buy the ELH, but it's old enough that used copies should be around at a decent price. The Epic Insights column over at the WotC site has already been linked to, so if you're really into epic, start there, and then check out the Dicefreaks website, which has a substantial amount of effort devoted to integrating the Epic rules.

I have issues with Union, mostly because of the inherent contradiction between the concept of Epic Level characters being rare and a city that seems tailor made for them. Union also has the security problems of Sigil (hey, it's connected to all kinds of places in the multiverse!) without the obvious protection. (the Lady of Pain can cage gods; mercanes are CR 5, what do they do, bribe invaders? The only solution I've found is to treat Union like a country-club: exclusive membership, incredibly high cost of living & doing business, and if anybody tries to crash the party, the Mercanes simply pull the plug on the demiplane, pack up, and set up shop elsewhere down the line.