You have the EU upside-down. It's not something that imposes upon it's member states, it's something it's member states use to impose their desired policies upo

You have the EU upside-down. It's not something that imposes upon it's member states, it's something it's member states use to impose their desired policies upon themselves. When a political party in a member state wants to support something unpopular, they push for it behind closed doors with other member states in the EU. Then the politician blames the EU for being too bureaucratic or something to throw the blame off themselves. The UK leaving the EU was not a reasoned act of statecraft; it was Tories trying to solve their own political problems by proposing a referendum they expected to fail. When it turned out to win by a hair, everyone involved immediately jumped ship. The thing is, all of the red tape and bureaucracy are things that citizens complain about. Politicians are the ones imposing it and the EU is just the rubber stamp they use.