I completely understand that it makes sense to have prosperous, stable neighbours. However, I'm not convinced that the EU as an institution is absolutely necess

I completely understand that it makes sense to have prosperous, stable neighbours. However, I'm not convinced that the EU as an institution is absolutely necessary to achieve that. Given that it has so many problems with corruption itself, it is not clear to me that it is learning very well from the better examples! It is surely possible to have some inter-cooperation without some of the downsides of the EU - mostly free trade and a certain minimum quality standard of living without the pernicious interference and bloated bureaucracy for which the european institutions are famed. Of course, I have no solid ideas to offer on that direction :-(