>>I was wondering the same, but then I thought to myself... if their politicians are doing the same crappy "job" that ours are doing, I'd reject anything they proposed.
>
>>So I've concluded that their politicians are as useless as ours (Canada).
>
>I guess the question then becomes what are they [the leaders] trying to accomplish by forming EU?
>I don't think that's been well defined. Maybe the general public in Europe is not well informed, which is typical with the average Americans as well.

I think it's far more basic than that.
I think the politicians are living in their own world and worrying about feathering their own beds. They "worry" about things highly esoteric while average Joe/Josephine has real problems making ends meet, working longer hours, worrying about their jobs, losing benefits, losing pensions and generally losing more and more ground. The gains of the last 20-30 years have been all but wiped out and we're heading fast to 1930 working/class conditions.

Surely the politicians put it to a referendum expecting that it would carry. They would have been stupid to do it if they thought otherwise. Which only indicates just how out-of-touch they are.