Can't have your cake and eat it too...

In all the current heartsearching over the Lisbon Treaty and the EU, you constantly hear people saying that they are fully in favour of the "common market" aspect of Europe, but dislike the idea of a political union. But the question is - can you have the one without the other? Was the seed of the EU always there in the EEC? The point is that you can't really have a free trade area without rules - the sad fact is that otherwise you will get countries pulling a fast one in their own self-interest. And if you have rules, you have to have some underlying principles on which they are based - and from there it's only a short step to agreeing policy - et voilà, the EU. I certainly think it has gone too far into intruding on matters which should be left to individual countries to decide, but I think the idea that we can have all the advantages of a European common market whilst distancing ourselves from some sort of central control is wishful thinking.