There is truth in this. But it is also more complex. Yes European bureaucratic over regulation and incompetence are real factors. But equally there is another side to this. Who is now consuming all that Russian oil and gas that the EU refuses to buy? China. They get it at a discount on world prices and because of the sanctions Russia is now highly reliant upon China. Chinas government has a cohesive and effective strategy and is gaining from the Ukraine war on economic and strategic fronts. Chinas ability to both ignore USD/SWIFT sanctions and to supply Russia with a comprehensive range of manufactured goods and services demonstrates how China can now provide a comprehensive trade alternative to any nation - and other nations are watching. The days of USD global hegemony are numbered as Russia and Iran are already entirely caught within Chinas monetary and trade orbit. As for the EU- its economic problems are essentially its inability to compete with Chinese manufacturing. China controls the raw materials and manufacturing of a wide range of strategic supply chains and China does it all cheaper and more efficiently than Europe or the USA. China has won the trade war- all nations must trade with it, or suffer loss. The trend is clear ~ the decline of Western/US hegemony and the rise of China.

Libertarians will struggle with this reality because they discount the importance of the nation state in the wealth of nations...but the strategic importance of nation state power projection in the wealth of nations is obvious if you look at history and the current state of affairs.