I am quite the critic of the EU but by and large it works surprisingly well given the history of the continent and the cultural/language diversity. Specifically the Schengen model which I believe the AU one is loosely based on is a great success imo. The rest of the EU...kind of debatable on all fronts. I even think the general idea of a Brexit is a positive thing...at least compared to the USA where secession from the union ended quite differently. There's a bureaucratic monster and a lot of warts but I'm surprised it's not more of a catastrophe. My point of reference is basically that the EU is a much harder to execute USA of sorts so I'm sorry for comparing it to the USA.

In theory the USA is built on a model of competing states or a laboratory of ideas where you can attract people from other places to your state. I like that idea a lot but I feel like it's been hollowed out over the years. The bureaucratic monster seems to be pretty huge at the federal level as well so I'd say that's just a given if you try to keep members somewhat together.