The discussion about Apple is kind-of meh, as apple is not such a big deal in europe, as most phones are not iphones. But the nostalgic view of the EU as some

The discussion about Apple is kind-of meh, as apple is not such a big deal in europe, as most phones are not iphones. But the nostalgic view of the EU as some kind of free market pioneer is stuck in the 90s. Today's world and EU are very different. Nobody rememebrs WW2 and europe is too weak to start another war. The protection from external threat (russia) is coming from the USA, and russia won't last very long anyway. Standardization is something that is happening in all global markets, not just in the EU, and that's how we have resorted to using the same standards with everyone in the world (including on the internet), not just with europe. The USB-C became a global standard because it dominated in the free market , before the EU standardized it. The single market is becoming a laggard , the global markets are dynamic enough to create their own standards, fast, now (e.g electric cars) Despite costly standardization processes, european brands did not gain in worldwide reach and competitiveness, in fact they have lost for the past 20 years and more. There used to be strong international brands (philips? siemens?) which are now much less global and arguably have lost from chinese and US companies. EU Cars are a strong market, but look at where these cars are made and sold, China is their main target market, not the Single market anymore. You rarely-or never- hear about a EU company that found EU-wide success before it became a global success. What the EU does have a is a lot of money, to subsidize businesses all over EU , but that has ended up eroding competitiveness, because companies end up competing for funds instead of competing for profits. The single market is of course a great idea, and mandatory in today's globalized world, but the EU today is much more than that.