In diplomatic historical terms what you quite rightly point in this paragraph is an historical anomaly. Historically, the UK always managed to incite a balance of power between the Germanic and the Francs. Even, the UK has never been shy on putting its weight behind the weakest of the two with the objective of restoring the balance of power in the continent whenever circumstances warranted such action.

It's not as if France is willingly on the side of Germany. France simply doesn't have an alternative right now and Hollande is way too blind to see any other way. Between the rock of Germany and the hard place of ideology, Hollande, like Captain Renault, simply blows with the wind. And the prevailing wind right now happens to come from Berlin. This concubinary relation won't last forever but it's where we are now. What does this mean to the UK? It means that the balance of power in the continent is now much harder to achieve than in the past. But, then again, Brexit may quite well be the straw breaking the camel's back and things revert back to their ancestral course.


It might quite well be the real and undeniable end for the EU.


Is there still an EU other than on paper?

The Netherlands? From all countries why did you mention them? Given their affinity with Germany I'd see them as the least probable country to try an exit from the EU. In any event, in case of a Brexit, I see most likely a continued erosion of the EU albeit at a faster pace than what has been happening until now followed by an outright implosion rather than other individual countries following the UK to the exit. But if I had to speculate on this last scenario I'd say that Denmark was the strongest candidate for an exit. The Danexit.