I am constantly amazed at the determination to keep the ever-closer-union project alive, even to the point of instituting utterly undemocratic governance in member states, I thought they would have walked long since.

As Hannan terms it; the EU's "hideous strength".

Welcome to the Sanjaks 2.0.

Or should that be Satrapy 3.0.

Either way, it's just another word for a subservient possession of empire.