he truth is that there is no "Union". There is a conglomerate of European states trying to take advantage of some rules called "the union". In times of crisis, old European divisions always seem to reopen -- and crises are part of the old continent, possibly its epitaph.

The coronavirus now has put the European Union and its comfort zone face-to-face with all its weaknesses, decadence and cowardice.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/european-union-dead-does-not-yet-know-it

Honestly, I felt this way in the 1990s after the Soviet Union fell.