The UK has benefited from 40 years in the EU

The European Union is a made up of 28 democratic states that operate as a cohesive economic and political bloc. Its commission members are nominated individually by the Council of Ministers (the body that represents governments of the member states) with its president elected by the European Parliament. The Commission requires a vote of approval from the European Parliament, which also has the power to remove it. 
The Council votes in one of three ways; unanimity, simple majority, or qualified majority. In most cases, the Council votes on issues by qualified majority voting, meaning that there must be a minimum of 255 votes out of 345 and a majority of member states. Unanimity is nearly always used where foreign policy is concerned, and in a number of cases under police and judicial cooperation.
The EU’s budget, which is around 155 billion euros, is subject to a form of the ordinary legislative procedure with a single reading giving Parliament power over the entire budget on an equal footing to the Council.
The EU and the Commission are certainly subject to criticism, and in fact there is a European Ombudsman.  
Lack of transparency, unclear lobbyist relations, conflicts of interests and excessive spending by the Commission was highlighted in a number of reports by internal and independent auditing organisations But there is a larger press corps in Brussels than Washington DC.
The UK has indeed benefited during the last 40 years by its membership of the EU, which is one of the reasons its economy is near the top of the world’s rankings. Whether it can maintain this without full access to the single market remains to be seen.
Ian Martin