GayfordA

Some Brexiters entertain the fantasy that the EU will dissolve. It's a delusion. The EU will continue to exist because trade within Europe would dissolve into chaos if it didn't. Each country would impose its own regulations and standards, making exporting a nightmare. Nations would accuse each other of using their regulations to block their exports. National governments would accuse their neighbours of using low taxes, subsidies and lax environmental and workplace standards to compete unfairly. It would be a disaster. To punish their unfair competitors, nations would put up new trade barriers. Trade would shrink violently, economies would plunge into long and brutal recessions, and populist politicians would blame neighbouring states. We know from the 1930s where that can lead. On the other hand, the EU's collapse would be great for a Trumpist USA, Russia, and China, which could divide up a weak and fragmented Europe into puppet states and spheres of influence. We could say goodbye to any real sovereignty, and we would learn what it's like to be the victims of imperialism. That's exactly why Trump, Vance and Putin want to destroy the EU. So Europe needs an organisation to harmonise regulations and standards, and create a reasonably level economic playing field. To do that requires a bureaucracy and decision-making mechanisms, preferably democratic, rather than behind closed doors. Brexiters yell that the EU isn't democratic, that's nonsense, but the democracy is distorted by the desire of member states to conduct much of the decision-making at the national government level in the Council of Ministers. Nationalism is why the EU Parliament has limited powers, and why there is no European PM or directly elected President. The EU is a pretty brilliant compromise between the need for free trade across Europe, the need for effective democratic decision-making and the retention of national sovereignty. Of course many of the people who want the EU to collapse are of an authoritarian disposition, meaning that they can only see compromise and cooperation in terms of domination. – at Brighton, England