European Union: in or out?

Following the Second World War it is understandable that politicians and public alike in Europe pondered on the carnage of the twentieth century and thought 'never again'.  In the east Russia expanded its empire by taking over Poland, Hungary, East Germany etc and installing puppet communist governments.  In the west there was genuine fear that Russia would seek to expand its influence/power westwards.

Eventually the European Economic Community came in to being, with  France and Germany the dominant partners.  The publicly articulated purpose was to form a trading zone free from border restrictions and tariffs.

However it is now realised that from the outset that the founding fathers of the EEC had something different in mind: full political union of European countries. Each step on the road to this goal met with denial as to the intended final outcome.  The collapse of the Russian empire in eastern Europe was welcomed in the west as, apart from the economic problems associated with reuniting Germany, countries formerly under Russian hegemony were invited to join the club: it would reduce the risk of any future Russian intervention.

The EEC became the European Union and continued  to strive for political union. The Brussels dictatoriat issued what has become an avalanche of directives as successive treaties enabled it to increase its power to ensure there was a 'level playing field' for commerce. 

The eurozone was an attempt to draw countries even closer together by having a common currency. Warnings that without fiscal and political union it would fail, were ignored for the simple reason the zone was a major step along the path to full political integration.

Emboldened the EU secured approval to the establishment of a presidency and a commissioner for foreign policy with ambassadors, even securing the right of audience at the United Nations.

Then the wheels fell off.  The eurozone is in disarray as it is clear that the policies of the European Central Bank on interest rates were designed to favour the economies of northern Europe and Germany in particular. The long drawn-out death of the eurozone has been marked by policies which will lead to deflation and negative economic growth in southern Europe.  Faced with guaranteeing bailouts for these nations Germany has taken fright. 

There is growing anti-EU sentiment across Europe, a growing sense of the democratic deficit within the EU and a far more nationalistic outlook.  The sad thing is that the EU and political leaders of the nation states maintained a policy of deliberate disregard of the views of citizens.

What will be retrieved from the wreckage of the EU is anyone's guess.  Greece might leave, Germany might leave, some countries may combine in new currency zones.

Should the UK withdraw from the EU?  My opinion is that we should unless it returns to being a free trade zone and nothing more.  Social, economic, fiscal and  monetary policies should be the responsibility of national governments answerable to their electorates.

There are those who argue that all we need to do is to give the European Parliament more teeth and thereby address the democratic deficit issue.  The problem is that EP elections are fought by national parties in each country and there is nothing approaching a pan-European manifesto by any party.  This is what makes the EU parliament so distinct from the USA Congress which is contested across all states by two parties.