Human, all too human, as Nietzsche (or his translator) said ─ the old traditional typing of sweaty, slack, lusty, Catholic Mediterraneans and icebound, virtuous, disciplined, Protestant northerners, with France in the middle.
And emigration to another EU country where things are better is consciously part of the EU setup, and according to the press a major Brexit chafing point. If I were an educated Latvian I wouldn't stay in Latvia.
I didn't mean to generalise too much, it is not just that the EU was seen as economically advantageous for countries like Greece, I also suspect wealthy members like the fact that it preserves the status quo in terms of the balance of power (political and economic). Recession is beginning to recede now, but the countries most damaged by it was not the traditional powerhouses like Germany or the UK, it was the poorer nations. That is why I think some commentators think the UK is cutting off its nose to spite its face with Brexit. Not so I'd say, we do not owe our prosperity to the EU, or our economic resilience. We will have to renegotiate our trading terms with our trading partners, but the idea that we will be hit with prohibitive tolls on all our exports is scaremongering, it wont happen. Business is business, people will always want to trade regardless of the system of government, a war of taxation on imports helps nobody.
Certainly to form a free trade zone. And behind that, idealism, the dream of a united Europe where WW2 could never happen again.
And that would account for the curious adventure with the Euro, which deprived those states which chose it of their economic flexibility ─ not least Greece, Italy and Spain.
Sure, the "free trade zone" makes sense, but that is nothing more than an administrative agreement between the countries that make up Europe. I won't tax the hell out of your exports if you don't tax the hell out of mine. It doesn't even call for a "single currency" if the truth be told, currency is just a way of counting the beans after all.
The original intent of the EU may have been to help preserve peace in Europe, but the world is a very different place now. It is pretty much unthinkable that the major players in Europe would ever contemplate war in this day and age, or that an aggressive militaristic administration might gain power in Germany, France, Italy,Spain or the UK; extreme politics is a busted flush, it is possibly only the Islamic fundamentalists who think there is some mileage in it. However, that kind of thinking originates from religious belief, not rational thought or an appreciation of history. I accept there remains extreme left wing and right wing parties in Europe, but they represent minority thinking. Every now and then they gain publicity because they win a seat or two, but the general pattern is they come and go. People use them to register a protest vote.
So, I think the UK leaving the EU may be the beginning of the end for it. If, as I suspect we will, carry on without economic calamity other nations may begin to question the value of it. If member states find themselves practically bankrupt again, begging for a loan to pay the bills, the people might just say "Why are we in this thing again?", and seek their own exit.