From what I understand, the whole point of the EU is to economically compete with large markets like the US, China, Southeast Asia.

Which, in an era of cross border ownership and transnational corporations , is no point at all, since you only compete with yourself.

"Competition" is all about depressing wages and living standards for the many to the benefit of the few. As has been exhaustively analysed and presented on ET...

Having said that, I know I'm in a minority here on ET since it is not clear to me what the EU is actually for in a globalised world.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson