Calling France and Italy "neo liberal" economies I think is pretty far from the reality. They are very much anti-free market, regulations heavy, high taxes, high public spending, high public deficit countries. And with the unemployment and low growth that goes along.
I can't resist sharing this French headline:
Les députés européens socialistes français estiment que la victoire annoncée du Brexit est "l'échec d'une Europe exclusivement dédiée au marché intérieur"
Translation: the French socialist members of European parliament think that the victory of Brexit is the "failure of a Europe solely dedicated to free trade".
Free trade is the only thing UKIP or the euro-sceptic tories want to keep from the EU. There is a fundamental cultural gap between the UK and Continental Europe countries.
Socialism in Europe died in the '90s. What we have now are right-wing neoliberal elites trashing the place that social-democrats built in the '70s and '80s.