The Eu isn't necessarily the issue IMO... but the European Commission is. It should be there to enable the proper operation of the various agreements that underpin the Union, but that isn't what has been happening for the past 40 years. I am all for closer co-operation on economic matters where there is a common market and interest and on wider political issues where there is consensus, but this not how things have panned out. Instead, Some countries have become marginalised as they have reacted to a 'European Dream' of a small number of people in positions of influence in Brussels.
The Commission is not intended to be democratic body, but a civil service for Europe. Is that what we see. Emphatically not in my opinion. Bloated and self invested doesn't even come close to describing it. It as it currently operates the principle reason for a lot of the issues facing many of the member states. The 'dream' describes ever closer economic, security and social integration right across the membership. The Schengen agreement is fundamental unsound and places a burden on member states that act as points of entry to the EU to police immigration both legal and illegal. Millions have crossed these borders (many in fear for their lives as refugees), but the EU policies make managing this issue a mess with half of the states involved not upholding the agreements and costing each country billions. Where is the 'solution' from the commission? They have had 30 years to consider the problem, bring the member states together and develop policies that might be more effective at balancing the challenges that are presented.
Many national governments are finding themselves at odds with the European dream, some for nationalist reasons, but many others because of the expense and poor value delivered.
The whole Brexit saga is based on a failure of the commission to heed the views of the people of the UK and in other part of Europe. In addition, all attempts to reform the commission and by association, many of its policies have been undermined or rejected. In Agriculture and Fisheries the system is simply unfair and unbalanced and delivers a subsidy for a very small group of countries. These policies have been a bedrock of the commissions activity since the 80's. Back then commitments were made to the UK to open up the services sector in the same way. nearly 40 years later hardly any progress has been made ... 40 years!
As I said I am for a good European Union, but it really does have to be seriously reformed to become fit for the 21st century. However, turkeys don't vote for Christmas and as a result of the lack of reform a small group of pompous UK politicians managed to engineer an Brexit Vote that was won with lies and misinformation. Those opposing Brexit during the referendum were also complicit as they were just arrogant and complacent.
Around the world Democracy is under threat. Research recently published showed that in the 70' & 80's around more than t0% of the worlds countries were recognisable as democracy. Today that figure has fallen to just 45%. There is also a case that can be argued that some of the biggest 'democracies' really aren't... The US is a two party Billionaire Contest, The UK is a constituitional nightmare with a featured political landscape that keeps seeing a form of gerrymandering through the changing of electoral boundaries, along with a completely distorted media controlled by a very select few. The effect of Fake News and Election Tampering through Social media is being seen around the world - DEMOCRACY ITSELF IS UNDER THREAT!
A while ago I looked at the voting figures for Brexit the oft used 52-48 percent numbers. The majority was for leave of course, but the actual number of votes that generated this was 634,751 people. That was the number that actually took the vote over 50%. This represents 1.23% of the Voting age population. If you take the distribution of voting across the UK and then overlay information on eduction there is really quite astonishing correlation. Those with generally better eduction voted stay and those without much in the way of education voted leave.
You can do the same with incomes, houses and health ... the mapping matches almost as well across all these.
I think the whole Brexit Vote fiasco was based on a lie that Europe was to blame for the problems of many who may feel they have lost out in British society. However, what is also interesting is that if you map EU funded projects a greater proportion exist in these areas.
I said earlier that Turkeys don't vote for Christmas, but on reflection, in some parts of the UK they do!