Another tiff between the European Union and Poland (and, similarly, Hungary) amply demonstrates that the problem of European governance is systemic rather than extrinsic. It is imperial centralization vs. national sovereignty and authoritarianism vs. democracy.
To comprehend the roots of the present crisis, and to keep himself informed, an erudite layperson should read at least four monographs about the European Union: first, John Laughland’s The Tainted Source: The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea (London: Warner Books, 1998); second, Pierre Manent’s Democracy without Nations: The Fate of Self-government in Europe (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2007); third, John Gillingham’s European Integration, 1950-2003: Superstate or New Market Economy? (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004); and, fourth, Todd Huizinga’s The New Totalitarian Temptation: Global Governance and the Crisis of Democracy in Europe (New York and London: Encounter Books, 2016).