It’s been useless because it doesn’t have governance over pandemic response. It’s up to the member states. Member states have been mostly useless, yes.
The UK is doing better with vaccines, but yeah, it didn't do any better during the pandemic.
Sweden has a lower per-capita COVID deathtoll than Czechia, Belgium, Slovenia, UK, Hungary, Bosnia, Italy, Bulgaria, Moldova, Macedonia, Slovakia, USA, Portgual, Spain, Croatia, France, Poland.
Its 2020 deaths were only 5.75% higher than its 2018 deaths:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-...
And even then can mainly be explained by a weak 2019 flu season (with deaths in 2019 3.6% below 2018) and potentially lower deaths in 2021 due to mortality displacement.
By contrast, Germany, with extensive and rolling lockdowns, had deaths 3.2% higher than 2018:
https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoel...
So a superficial analysis would suggest that society-wide lockdowns could have saved a country like Sweden 2.55% of deaths, or 2,486 people. So you would be locking down 4,115 people in order to save one of them from dying of COVID, beyond what could be achieved from softer or voluntary measures.
And although Sweden didn't do lockdowns, almost every corp sent their workers to WFH, and other people reduced their outgoings.
I have a friend in Sweden who has a shop and he complained that he has never seen so few people on streets and in his shop.
So Sweden had unofficial lockdowns.
1,300 deaths per million in Poland,
1,289 deaths per million in Sweden.
The point is that mandatory government lockdowns are unnecessary and destructive, the population will adjust their behavior themselves.