NOT when it comes to the level of violence and repression or quality of living. Those two things are world-class.

But in the sense that there's a more or less unelected political establishment that's

a) Recursive: It does things only to show them off to itself.

b) Not exposed to real-world consequences.

c) Has a non-falsifiable pretense to validate whatever they do and caution against undoing whatever it is. For the soviets, it was anti-capitalism. For the EU it's some notion of safety or sustainability.

d) Inadvertently benefits itself and other elites and harms the people they pretend to protect.

My hope is that as a democratic institution, the EU is capable of reform.