The European politicians love to talk about the “huge” benefits of membership in the European Union. It is certainly true that the “single” market between the EU member states has brought tangible benefits, but those have been declining in importance as technological change made access to services and capital cheaper and easier, and trade liberalization progressed world-wide. Moreover, as the Brussels-based EU bureaucracy expanded, economic liberalization gave way to regulation that helped to strangle European growth (see the graph below). Consider the latest absurdity to emerge from Brussels—a poultry regulation, which aimed to increase the comfort of the egg-laying chickens, but resulted in a drastic cut in egg production and a 100% increase in the price of eggs.

The EU bureaucracy may not appreciate the problem of unintended consequences, but ordinary Europeans are beginning to realize that the EU no longer is what it used to be—a byword for prosperity and stability. In the Czech Republic, for example, a record number of citizens do not trust the EU (63 percent) and the EU Parliament (70 percent). If the EU elite persist in killing jobs and growth, it may bring about the ultimate unintended consequence—the break up of the EU.