simple question....

Hi
As I live in the UK which is supposed to be part of Europe what is the problems with Europe.
As I see it each state of Europe want to be a member but want the other states to comply with their thought of how things should be done. Britain don't want be told what to do by the French. The French don't trust the Germans, the Italians dont want to be told what to do by the Greeks. The greeks don't want the Turks to join and so it goes on. As a result a balls up of a compromise to try to keep the whole mess running.
Euro MP's are a waste of space, the commission is unaccountable to anyone but themselves.
Could I suggest we try democracy ? ( wash my mouth with soap) .
All those who want to run the EU should be voted by the people using a system which reflects the will of the people not the poxed up system we have in the Uk where an MP generally is elected on a minority vote.

I feel better for that Thanks

R

If the EU dismantles then Europe would be "weaker" and would have to do whatever the USA tells them to do.

what is to dismantle?

Not dismantle but a reorganization is really necessary!

Jeroen

I voted no because I believe that the EU is good for Europe but I don`t think that if the EU dismantle will do whatever USA tells them to do... Even now that EU exists many European countries are doing whatever USA tells them to do or to say it better they are in a close relationship with USA and have common politics.

Anyway I think that all these has to do with the selfishness...

That's a tricky question.

Voted No, but i think that when the European Comunity of Steel and Carbon was created and later the CEE and now EU, it wasn't planned that the Steel Curtain was going to fall. It wasn't planned either that it would have so many countries with so many differences.

It's organization is not working the way it should: there is a common market, there is €uro, there is free movement of people, but the Foreign Policy is an impossible dream at this time with the actual organization and with so many countries.

I suppose it will remain this way for a long time until something/someone motivates all the countries to accept a common will (is there a common will?), and that is not happening and is every day it is more unlikely to happen.

I voted No but i think that EU as to choose if it really wants a Common Policy or just a Common Market. So I think it's not a matter of dismantling, but reorganization and in what way they want this reorganization.

Dismantle the EU? No...

Should the UK be part of it? Not sure.

The EEC was fine, we had a referendum about joining that. I don't remember anyone asking me if I wanted to give up UK sovereignty and become a part of a European super state.

The EU now is a group of countries working together in economy and politics. "To dismantle the EU" means that this relation is broken, in such a way that all countries will not cooperate and will all have their own political and economical systems.

I think this is a bad idea. The EU countries try to be bound and to cooperate. Although I think there is a certain limit in how much they should be bound, they should not break the cooperation. The USA has a huge influence on world politics, the EU is able to form a more important opinion as a union. If the European countries would be self-equipped states, not working together, the USA would have a much bigger influence. As a European, I don't want the USA to be the president of the world.

About economy: the euro has proven that it is a very strong currency. The euro never could have existed without the EU. So I say no to dismantling the EU.

No, the EU is a strong economic union which will allow its members to work together and improve their economies in this changing century!

As long as the EU is a fully democratic and free organization i see no reason why we should wish for it not to be.

I voted for no.

I'm an Italian living in Germany five minutes away from france. Luxembourg and Belgium are just a hop away, too. So I'm often travelling across countries.

In this region many people work abroad and shop cross-borderly.

The European Union made life much easier for us.

sure, the union is still not perfect but it's on its way there.


The british are in doubt about the Union beacause they are kind of isolated on their little isle ;P Not even the UK border is open and you need your passport to travel there.

You have hit the nail on the head! Historically we don't see ourselves as european. You almost never hear a British person describing themselves as European. Europe is another place across the sea. It is separated physically and in our minds. Here in the UK we don't feel European, we see none of the benefits. Just the burden of extra laws and high taxes.

I say no. I think the benefits definitely outweight problems. I love being able to pop across the border without hassle whenever I feel like. I think europeans can learn a lot from each other and the EU gives us a perfect opportunity to do that.

I'm not sure about the UK. I guess its for the British to decide if its the right thing for them or not. Things will always be little different across the pond.

hi, i know i'm going to sound like a broken record but i didn't care.

the EU isn't about "a strong economic union" it's only about political union. any member of the EU can leave tomorrow and still have the trading rights it has now - THAT IS A FACT.

what the EU is trying to do is build one big country, it was about to happen a couple of years ago, but didn't get through at the time.
the EU isn't democratic. when was there a vote for the President of the European Commission?

i know politics is boring and people don't follow it much. but i just wish people would pay more attetion to what the EU is about

I voted no, because I believe that EU should have more power than it has now. Sure, there are areas in which EU needs to change.

I'm not sure of my feelings about the fact that the people don't elect the president. I'm quite comfortable with the fact that the people who know what they are doing and who are elected by the people are up to choose one.

no.

I think you are partially right here. Maybe "Old Europe" would disagree with you about this statement (France & Germany) as Rumsfeld so eloquently described them. "New Europe" such as UK, Spain (before they saw sense and booted out their last leader) and Italy who dance to the American tune ...

with new europe he meant poland and eastern european countries.

not the uk, spain or italy...

he would refer to the uk as his puppy anyways.

I don't really think the EU acts as a counterweight to the US, much like the UN is routinely ignored when it's not in their interests. Look at Iraq for example, most of Europe was against it and held no influence on their opinion. In the end Bush was just looking for support not counsel, and all this flamining of "old europe" and "new europe" certainly didn't help the situation.

I think the original aims of Europe as a common (free trade) market was what it should of been left at. Mind you that means free trade, not mindless subsidies to countries that should open up their industries to the free-market (spot a contradiction here?). I disagree with centralised politics and economics shift of power to Brussels and for any nation state to have to give up its sovereignty to an unaccountable bureaucracy. A loosely federated union where each nation serves its own interests first and agrees on some simple common goals is best.

As for the euro? Has it really been a success? Every member has a different economy and setting blanket interest rates for all helps some countries and hurts others. The recent status of the euro has more to do with it trading as an anti-dollar and hence countries like China, Japan and Middle East diversifying their foreign reserves away from a depreciating dollar than anything else.

but why should we have to build one big country to compete politically or economically? if institutions like the UN and WTO were doing their jobs and receive proper, unconditional backing from the big boys (and not when it suits them or when decisions go against them) then we wouldn't need regional blocs for trade, military etc. every country could compete on a level playing field without the need to "team up" to stay ahead of the game...