The EU - as distinct from European countries themselves - has a pretty consistently authoritarian direction of travel. It is after all a project to massively ce

The EU - as distinct from European countries themselves - has a pretty consistently authoritarian direction of travel. It is after all a project to massively centralise all power in an unelected bureaucracy in Brussels, removing it from the democratically elected politicians in the national governments. You probably aren't aware of this because the EU gets consistently good press from journalists rather enamoured of the whole project, but there are reasons the UK chose to leave.