Free trade is a socially acceptable excuse Brexit voters can use to mask the real reasons they voted to leave. As is sovereignty.
You can argue that external forces decrease the room for maneuvers for a single nation. Just as you can argue that member states have the tendency to fiercely guard sovereignty anyway and did so in the past. Nothing to say against that.
But to say that sovereignty is not an important issue to discuss within the European Union isn't an informed position at all.
Most new laws are enacted by the EU in most member states.
> Of course that is one of the most important discussion within the European Union.
Is it? Why?
> Nothing to say against that.
Why should the sovereignty of the UK be paramount? Why not the sovereignty of (for example) London, Cornwall or Scotland?
The UK is a mix of geographically-close former countries, inhabited by people with different backgrounds who speak different native languages and used to be at war with each other.
I fail to see why the UK should have any greater claim to sovereignty than the EU or a subsection of the UK...
> Most new laws are enacted by the EU in most member states.
No idea if that's true, but I do know that the vast majority of laws enacted by the EU are done so because it is more beneficial for the UK (and other member states) if the EU enacts them as opposed to each EU state enacting their own version. Much simpler when it comes to trade etc.
this is not a fact at all, Lisbon removed the veto from nearly every area, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_the_Council_of_the_E...
To argue otherwise would be akin to arguing that the UK parliament isn't sovereign because local councils can make some local decisions independently.
EDIT (To reply to the comment below):
If you read the information in the link posted, it's obvious that the important decisions still require unanimity, even if minor decisions (yes, some of them in important fields) now only require QMV.
FWIW, I'm a fan of QMV.
personally I would call employment, business, immigration, social security, criminal law, and half a dozen things listed there as important, but there you go
> If you read the information in the link posted, it's obvious that the important decisions still require unanimity, even if minor decisions (yes, some of them in important fields) now only require QMV.
not true (again)... might be true most of the time, but not always (which is the entire problem)
see the fuss over the past two years where eastern european countries were forced over their explicit objections to accept migrant quotas using QMV