I like the dynamic of having all the EU immigrants.
I also like having the cross border trade.
The real problem with strat is that it's about grinding tickets more than it's about anything else. You can get by with an average trade set, you can get by with crap diplomacy IF you have a shit load of troop farmers. That's what the UIF have, a shit load troop farmers (and also an excellent trade set up).
If the system I offered up was in place the UIF would have a much hard time of it.