None of the EU regulations are innocuous. Especially since they are written and imposed by unelected bureaucrats.
And the “European project” was always imperialistic in outlook.
>>None of the EU regulations are innocuous.
As an example of an innocuous or even good regulation is having bumpers on cars the same height off the ground. Another is having the distance between the rails of a railroad to be the same distance across. A third is to have the number of turns on a bolt of a certain size equal the number of turns on the nut. Such things as these facilitate trade and competition across national borders.
But, with regard to whether “None of the EU regulations are innocuous,” it kind of depends on what the meaning of “are” is. Until recently, almost all were enacted by Norway and Switzerland unanimously or on a voice vote. That was then. But, the regulations keep coming, and there is now growing resistance to them. This is now.
Strategically, one could say that the obnoxious part was that the initial innocuous or even good part would tend to grow into an increasingly intrusive part. But, tendencies are only tendencies. They’re not destiny. So, we would want to retain options, including the option to leave, for when good or at least innocuous things become, first, entangling, and then intrusive.
Great Britain, by exiting the EU, sends a powerful signal that the EU should reverse the tendency of bureaucracies to outgrow their useful. Great Britain can actually save the EU from itself. But, frankly, I don’t think so. It will take a few more countries to leave. Once the German people realize there will be nobody to subsidize the sale of German products on credit to southern Europeans, they will be amenable to reform of the EU.
Merkel has grown deluded by her past success. She now sees her future moving to the left and she denies the rise of the populist right. The sooner she steps down or is defeated the better for Germany.