I spent two years in the late 70s in Germany. I could rattle off a dozen reasons why you needed something like the EU to exist. It was horrendous to travel from Germany to Amsterdam on a Friday night and return on Sunday evening. Exchanging DM’s for Franc’s were always a hassle. The list would go on and on.
So as the 80s and 90s evolved, the EU arrived and solved all of these crappy problems. In 1999...the Euro arrived and ended the currency exchange issue.
At that point, the EU had done all the good things left on the plate, and needed to continue to prove reasons for their existence, and there in....lies the root of problems today.
They decided you needed a regulation over the wattage power for vacuum cleaners. They made dozens of regulations over cars, scooters, light-bulbs, bananas, and even tea pots.
You can ask a hundred Germans today about the representatives for them, and probably three-quarters have no idea who is their person, or what’s on the agenda for this month. Brussels is like some dark cave where things occur all of sudden and the public is shocked that a vote is going to occur in 24 hours over a fairly sensitive topic.
I partially agree that up to Euroland is very good and there must be changes to what came after.
however, you point out myths like the bendy bananas
The EU parliament should be scrapped in favor of just the council of ministers, but then folks would complain about “lack of democracy in the federation”