when the Going is Good...

"The current situation gives the impression that Europe is something people participate in when there is money, and where one disappears into the bushes when it is time to take on responsibility,” said Sigmar Gabriel, head of Germany’s center-left Social Democrats who serves as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deputy.

I think that this remark, made in the context of the refugee crisis, actually applies pretty  well to the Common Market/European Union virtually from the outset.