@kravietz 🦇 To be fair, if the Americans started explaining “oh, you know, the government _itself_ isn't buying Russian uranium, it's actually this or that independent body state federal voting procedural administrative matter”, we'd say: “it's for you to sort out your internal politics to be able to act the way you talk”.
It EU wants to be a partner, then this argument stands: we're not a reliable or effective partner, if hiding behind the EU-facade's big moralistic talk is the fact that member states will still do whatever.
The narrative is deeper than just the Russian gas and oil. The narrative is: the Europeans talk high values, but can't be counted on to act themselves, only to focus on condemning others.
This narrative is, unfortunately, both damning and correct.
And the answer is: true, we all need a stronger, effective, more integrated EU. Otherwise we will be stuck with what in practice amounts to endless squabbling of a bunch of weak nation-states.