One - just one - of the reasons I have never thought that Britain should be an integral part of the European Union is that we really don't understand them. Sometimes they mean what they say, and sometimes they don't.
Take for example our accession to the then European Economic Community in 1973, nearly 40 years ago. A couple of sceptical politicians reminded the then government that the Treaty said it was for 'ever closer union'. The Prime Minister, Edward Heath, said in a broadcast that there was nothing to worry about, this was the sort of language these European Johnnies used, and there was no question of any political element to it. Of course we now know that this was something they said and meant, but didn't want us to know.
On the other hand, consider this. Spain, on the very day that it enthusiastically signed the new budget agreement (Britain, if you recall, refused to sign it and is a pariah) on the very day, announced a proposed budgetary deficit in excess of that permitted. But they signed! The thing will have lasted intact for minutes rather than hours, rather than as Angela Merkel said 'it will last for ever'.
Nicolas Sarkozy announced that their strategy was bearing fruit, on the day that Greece was downgraded again.
I mean, what on earth is it all about?
'When I use a word', Humpty Dumpty said, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less'
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