As a resident of EU, I consider it net positive — it recreates in a miniature the pre-visa world of 19th century, giving me an opportunity to pick a country with internal policy, tax policy, culture, cuisine etc I like with a minimum of hassle: no residence permits, no tying residence to a place of work, no waiting in visa queue for years to be rejected by a bureaucrat, mostly single-currency, integrated payments network, cross-country banking, equal access to local education etc.
And I’m not even a citizen of a full EU state, I’m a citizen of EEA country.
OTOH, all this convenience comes from a handful of EU directives, the rest I could easily live without.
As a resident of EU, I consider it net positive — it recreates in a miniature the pre-visa world of 19th century, giving me an opportunity to pick a country with internal policy, tax policy, culture, cuisine etc I like with a minimum of hassle: no residence permits, no tying residence to a place of work, no waiting in visa queue for years to be rejected by a bureaucrat, mostly single-currency, integrated payments network, cross-country banking, equal access to local education etc.
And I’m not even a citizen of a full EU state, I’m a citizen of EEA country.
OTOH, all this convenience comes from a handful of EU directives, the rest I could easily live without.