As a non-European who sometimes reads EU news, I think this is spot on. If you're a politician in Europe, the real goal is a position in your national government or parliament; the EU institutions are nothing more than a consolation prize, and so they're full of marginal opinions, also-ran politicians, disgraced former ministers, etc.

The good ol' "we don't like the EU, so we'll sink ourselves and everyone else trying to sabotage it, just to prove everyone that EU was a bad idea".

I agree, a citizen of yet another EU country