Membership of the EU, or fighting your neighbours?

[HOGEPH]

The EEC was formed in part to "preserve peace and liberty and to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe"

Just idly wondering whether in the long run, it has been cheaper for Britain to be a member of the EEC/EU, paying vast amounts into the bottomless pit of Brussels, or whether we would have been better off staying out of Europe, and occasionally fighting very expensive wars with France and Germany, as we used to do in the past.