No, where is the contradiction?

The EU is either

- an unstoppable authoritarian juggernaut to which countries have foolishly ceded their sovereignty and are now paying the price in the form of draconian regulation

- a weak and ineffectual symbolic union which issues empty proclamations that countries are free to ignore without consequence

Which is it?

False dichotomy. It can be both, depending on the issue. This is similar to U.S., although U.S. is much stronger on the federal level than EU is.

Do you regard the ceding of state sovereignty to the U.S. federal government to also have been a fatal error?