There’s much I owe to the European Union. Without it, my life up to now would’ve been very different and I’d likely have less to be grateful for. Because of the EU, I was able to move from Austria to England, Sweden and Germany to live, study and work, without ever applying for a visa or filling in a single form that natives of that country wouldn’t have had to fill in themselves. England, which was still a member of the EU at the time, welcomed me to its labor market and its universities at the same conditions than everybody else. Even in the United States, citizens from other states have to pay extra if they wish to study at an out of state university. In that respect, the EU is more integrated than America.
It has become fashionable to criticize the EU’s bloated, elitist bureaucracy and regulations. Such criticism has its merits, but it’s easy to forget how much the EU also enhances its citizens’ freedom. Especially entirely free movement between states, whether to visit, study or work, is a radical liberty that has recently increasingly been threatened by national governments eager to appeal to voters who disapprove of such freedom.
The EU is an idealistic project. It does some things well and some not so well. But where it counts, its impact is positive. It’s democratic, it improves its citizens’ lives and increases their freedoms.
The EU may be the world’s most democratic transnational body, with the European Parliament elected directly by the bloc’s citizens. By reducing barriers to free trade and creating a single market, it improves citizens’ economic fortunes. And through its policies such as freedom of movement, it increases liberty. I have experienced the benefit of all three.
Nehaveigur 