Just look at how the responses in here go to even the slightest criticism of the EU. (Particularly my original reply in this thread, which was even flagged for a long time).

The point here is only geopolitical competition with the US has kept the EU remotely honest. They clearly cannot be trusted to enforce their own laws when it suits powerful entities within, and will lie to their population about doing so until it becomes impossible to hide.

Obviously the same applies to other geopolitical actors too. The EU trend towards bureaucratic rule by diktat is astounding though, and it's rapidly getting all the downsides of the Chinese system and none of the upside.