Yet what has been unfolding in the past 15 months or so should make even the most ardent pro-European think about an orderly mechanism for making member states exit: the euro crisis and, less obviously, Hungary's backsliding from liberal democracy to a soft form of authoritarianism, or what an American paper recently called "Lukashenko lite".
But virtually everybody always assumed that European integration more broadly was a one-way street: once inside the club, there was liberal democracy and, sooner or later, prosperity; nobody would possibly want to go back to authoritarianism, whether of a rightwing type, as on the Iberian peninsula, or a leftwing type, as in central and eastern Europe.
Except that within a year of taking power, he is showing the same authoritarianism that marked his regime in Gujarat.
A small minority openly criticise the authoritarianism of both the Brotherhood and the army.
There seems to be an authoritarianism, things are impersonal and opaque".
Liberal Democrats have long stood up for the civil liberties of British citizens, especially in the face of Labour's authoritarianism - they were the people who passed this over-broad and draconian legislation.
The region's structural weaknesses, like its authoritarianism and corruption, will not disappear overnight.
An earlier version referred to "authoritarism" where "authoritarianism" was meant.
But the vast majority of Egyptians back Sisi despite the many failures of the military junta (known as Scaf) that governed Egypt following Mubarak's exit in 2011, and despite activists' warnings that a Sisi presidency would be likely bring a revival of Mubarak-era authoritarianism.
He has used the mandate to draft and rush through a new Hungarian constitution, crack down on media pluralism, and has been accused of authoritarianism and breaking the laws of the EU, which Hungary joined in 2004.
Artist Pyotr Pavlensky has made eyes water all over the world with his protest against Russia's descent into authoritarianism – nailing his testicles to the ground in Red Square on Sunday to denounce Vladimir Putin's "police state".
