Tough luck for iPhone users as Europe imposes a standard phone charger

the European Union ever done for us? Well, the single market is jolly useful, as anyone running a business can attest. Structural funds have financed roads, electricity grids and whatnot in poorer bits of the continent. Rather urgent plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions within a generation have been hashed out at level, lest anyone forget. You can cross most of its borders without a passport, too, though people take them on holiday anyway. Not to mention antitrust rules devised then enforced in Brussels to prevent big firms from bilking consumers. Oh and there is peace, at least within the bloc. Charlemagne could go on. The problem is, few Europeans know about much of this, or give the credit for it. Most of what affects their daily lives—education, tax rates, housing benefits, fixing potholes—is decided by national governments or local ones. Beyond the odd summit of leaders discussing the fate of the world (or at least the euro) much of what happens in Brussels is noted primarily by policy wonks. Only occasionally does the great hulking regulatory machine there, including a 32,000-strong European Commission and 705 s, find a way of doing something that will be both noticed by citizens and for which the can claim credit. One such example was agreed on June 7th: by 2024 makers of devices including smartphones and cameras will have to switch to a single type of charger mandated by Brussels.