The "welfare state" model is pretty burdensome (especially when unnecessarily burdened) and, alongside the EU's restrictive, bureaucracy-ridden market, stifles the economy.
Some of the ex-USSR states actually have a stronger foothold in the sense that they're not burdened by debt or gained privileges.
It's a snowball's chance in hell in any European country to change the system. Even the politicians acknowledge that they just have to deal with it, even if the capacity to sustain welfare without amassing massive debt, is no longer there, and hasn't been for decades. Growth is pretty minimal and usually followed by a long slump.
Mixing nationalist sentiment alongside economic austerity, is one of the better alternatives, as far as I'm concerned. If the people come to understand that a more rigid economic policy, in place of excess spending, is actually in their own good, then there's atleast a chance that these sort of changes can be accomplished. Because they will have to be accomplished, eventually, for Europe's nations to survive as sovereign and independent entities.
Such a world does not exist, where you can be fed by another, and still retain your sovereignty. Either we acknowledge that we can no longer handle our own affairs, or make the changes that are necessary to retain independent control. This whole phase of drifting between the two alternatives, acting as if dependence and independence can co-exist, will not last forever.
