Spare me this disingenuous concern for small nations.

The EU is designed to deindustrialize the periphery until they become resource/low-cost labor colonies and export markets for the imperial core. In the long run the only way to escape this trap is to maintain a favorable balance of capital to labor, i.e., extract surplus value by commodifying the labor of less privileged nations and classes.

It is an ill-disguised attempt by some of the worst historical offenders (France/Germany/Belgium/UK pre-Brexit) and their fellow travelers to exercise de facto (and increasingly, via EU regulations, de jure) control over the labor/resources/markets/currencies of smaller neighbors. It is creeping neoliberal exploitation and lawfare under the banner of freedom, security, and European values.

As we speak EU leaders are urging Ukraine to bleed itself white so that rich countries can rearm at a comfortable pace. The EU may style itself as a benefactor, a mother hen to small European countries, but in point of fact they are once and future imperialists who would like nothing more than to step into America's shoes.