Good article until the end where he compared an empire that was created by Russia invading other countries (yes, they freed them from the Nazis, but they forgot

Good article until the end where he compared an empire that was created by Russia invading other countries (yes, they freed them from the Nazis, but they forgot to leave afterwards) to the EU, which was created to prevent Germany from doing exactly that every other year. Yes the EU has economic problems in the South, but they are nowhere near Soviet-level problems. Eastern Germany was one of the better doing (de facto) Soviet states and is still far behind the West today after 25 years of subsidies. The EU has a problematic image, but it is not like mother Russia looking after its child states. The commission has no direct elections, because the member governments which negotiated the treaties (remember, this is just a union of states) do not want elections. They want to send in their own guys. The image is so bad, because nobody knows anything about it and local governments blame it for everything. They abuse it to get laws passed and can later blame on the EU. Many of the standard the EU creates are quite good. Think of roaming or USB chargers for example. Yes, they are regulating many things, but that's because they cannot do anything else. What we really need is not less EU but more. First of all better integration on the financial side of politics. We cannot share a currency without a joined budget/tax system. After that we can work on things like police, military, maybe even social systems (which would stop the discussion what EU citizens should get from the state).