It's real. Nothing surprising: the EUSSR has built an entire administrative industry where the paperwork costs more than the box itself.
Try to ship a cardboard box across an internal EU border and you will quickly wake up from the "single market" fairy tale.
Anyway, the whole place is sadly crumbling before our eyes. We just lost 3-Michelin-star chef Nadia Santini, and Maestro Tinto Brass too. Once cooking and entertainment die, there's really nothing left in the EU worth spending time on.