I think that's an important point. A lot of people seem to be saying that they want something like the common market or a free trade area but without any of the associated political or regulatory framework - but I rather suspect that if those people got what they wanted, they'd probably be horrified by the results: A free market without some common regulatory framework would mean multinational corporations able to pick and choose wherever the lowest wages/lowest safety standards/etc. are, and Governments would be forced into a race to the bottom to keep companies in their own countries. It seems to me that if you want a common, free, market, and don't want a nightmare of individual Governments being held hostage to unethical businesses, then you have to accept some corresponding degree of regulatory union.
I'm not sure that necessarily follows.
France, for example, seems to be very competent at defending its way of life, note the recent National debate about the maximum working week. Unfortunately, the Common Market in its present form, seems to have been championing private finance over the rights of countries to run their own services as they see fit.
Of course, there needs to be some regulation to impose standards, however, for issues that are truly important, agreement needs to be much wider than Europe. What would be the point of having an agreement on corporate taxation that didn't include the USA for example.