> And one last thing, the EU was created to economically tie as many countries in Europe together so they would all depend on each other for resources. That way no one country could start world war three.

To me this is one of the most important aspects. It is so sad to see this being unraveled.

I would add the quite inspired Erasmus student exchange program to this - encouraging people to do (parts of) their university studies in a different European country is a brilliant way to perform cross-pollination both with DNA/family ties and ideas. I think this could end up being the most powerful way to guard against future intra-european wars.