I am not sure I understand your rough outline entirely, but I don't see why there then cannot be a middle ground between a totally 'Free Trade Club' if that doesn't work, and what the EU is right now.
Basically, there is always some defect in a single economic yet multinational market owing to some systemic or behavioral flaw that drives the customs union toward common fiscal, monetary, labor and industrial policies; i.e., toward political union. Once you 'get there' in a step-wise fashion, the logic on the how you arrived is easy to forget.
I think there are much better and more efficient ways to go about having an EU and that actually it's better in the longer term for some countries to leave the EU that exists now to force it into radical reforms. If the EU as it is now just continues adding more and more laws and getting ever more complex, then it's adding more stuff onto a set of foundations that were designed more towards a Free Trade club (the EEC) than being a single superstate.
The historical foundation is one intended to establish peace. See the
History of the European Coal and Steel Community. Even then, the UK stood apart, so In/Out is a constant between it and the EU. (Sigh.) Again, once we got to today's EU, it is easy to forget how and why.
So lets have lots of EU standards. Most businesses will use them. Just don't make them compulsory.
We'd need to go case by case, really, as some make no sense if not universal, some only make sense as recommendations. In general, however, the anti-regulatory mantra
à l'américaine suffers from its general and therefore uninformed targeting. Once one gets into detail, well then of course we need child labor laws, pollution control, land zoning, land use, and eventually, goodness gracious, wouldn't you know, something comes up in all realms of human endeavor.
The answer to that is one I and many used in big business. Large overalls of the entire corporation (a) never work for a thousand reasons and (b) result in large yet unproductive disturbances. To overcome that, you target (a) core critical objectives, (b) their essential workings and processes, (c) identify bottlenecks, and (d) those that are a result of bad policy get a policy reworking. (This is basic reengineering but in few words.)
In government, that translates into a redesign of processes, an adjustment of regulations, or perhaps a direct elimination of unneeded red tape. Depends. The key takeaway in business or government is that you always focus on the immediate tangible issue, the pebble in the shoe, and work to fix
that. Reengineering entire systems is rarely a good idea, and is often the equivalent of a face-saving measure to generate the illusion of change, and takes forever to make the tangible improvements you get by looking at core issues singly. When driven by core issues on a cyclical calendar using continuous improvement, organizations actually can be managed and seen to change.
I agree with that entirely. If you move to a new country and meet a partner and settle down, get a mortgage, you should have the same residence rights as someone born in that country. I have argued this in several posts, pre and post vote.
I do think that immigrants that contribute little to the country they move to should be incentivised to adding to their new society. If you move here and take a low paid, unskilled job, or wind up on welfare, then there ought to be limits on how long you can stay. (I'd suggest 3-5 years max)
Though I agree the very first stage of immigration might have a short time limit, say 3 to 5 years, before any more permanent status is granted, I can see no justification to choosing who gets to stay on the basis of type of employment. It sounds good as industrial policy, but treats actual humans as widgets. Even janitors fall in love.
The time to restrict by profile is at the start, i.e., basis of entry. In the case of the UK, let's say it is a magnet for all strata. How to deal with that? To avoid discrimination, argue for a maximum quantity of immigration per time period. If agreed to with partners, this may include some differentiation on the basis of industrial policy. But definitely a workable issue.
Again I'm for European Union, for exactly these reasons, I just think that the faults of the EU presently outweigh the positives. Not long ago I read that the Greek crisis could break the Euro. If a bigger problem like that comes along in 5 years say, and the Euro is massively devalued, then we're much better off out of the EU than in it.
Euro is too long for this same post to go into, but for UK is moot right now anyway.
This is where I disagree. I think that the EU needed a good kick up the backside, something that the Brexit vote has delivered in spades.
I think we are still in tumultuous times, and when the tempers have cooled a little more and once we have a new PM and a clearer picture of the direction we want to go as a country more measured voices will be heard on both sides.
If they are tumultuous times, could we not agree that kicks up backsides are not helpful? I've seen plenty of cool-headed and hard-nosed negotiators in my day who need no theatrics to achieve goals, especially if those theatrics poison the well for all.
It's nigh on certain that we're leaving the EU, and it's also nigh on certain imo that the EU will be forced into reforms as a result.
In 20 years if the EU then looks like a better and fairer thing than it is right now, then I'd happily vote to rejoin it.
Hope there is a decent world left. At this juncture in the 21st century, it is clear to me we are on a knife edge. East Asia is dangerous; there are worrisome Chinese moves in the South China Sea and Sea of Japan; Russian planes are buzzing NATO assets in the Baltic in a reckless fashion; the outcome for regimes in the ME is uncertain, including the much ignored but newly worrisome rivalries among factions in the Saudi kingdom and tense need to modernize an economy while remaining in the 9th century; South Asia has a new nuclear rivalry, prompting Pakistan to announce they are toying with making battlefield nukes, and finally Putin's new military adventures in the Black Sea area. And someone, somewhere, will set off a dirty bomb. Whenever that happens, regardless of where, the world will change much for the worse.