Quote:
Originally Posted by MH
Some economist here said that Greece was never really ready to join EU with its economy.
Its was just politics.
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Yup. Too many countries were able to join the EU
way too easy. The EU on a whole I think isn't a bad concept, it just should have been handled very differently. (Ofcourse I realise that that is easy to say in hindsight)
If we want the EU to work, it should have way more economical power. I know a lot of people wouldn't agree, but if you want a European Union that actually works, then for god's sake give it more power over economies.
If a country doesn't want to sacrifice it's economical autonomy, than it shouldn't join / have joined in the first place. In fact, my belief is that the EU's core business should be economics in the first place.
Here's how I see it; either shut down the entire EU concept (aside from the Euro and the open borders; liquidating the euro would cost a lot, and it actually made us a lot of money up to now. The problem is not the euro as a currency; it's the countries that shouldn't have been allowed to participate in the first place that make it a costly project)
But IF you want to go forward with the EU:
- Uphold the rules that were set in the first place; a lot of countries
have been violating rules regarding inflation and debt for years
without any serious penalties.
- Move the lot to Brussel permanently. The situation as it is now, is
ridiculous. In fact, I'm surprised non-European forum members never
made fun of us for that. They would be so right.
A breakdown of the EU parliament:
It's Secretary-General resides in Luxemburg, most of
the activities of the Parliament and it's members work from Brussel.
But each month the four-day general meeting of the Parliament is
taking place in Strassbourg, France. So each month, six removal vans
(or how do you call them? You know, the U-Haul things) transport
3700 boxes with documents to Strassbourg. And 700 officials
travel either by plane, car or train. Total annual costs of these
ridiculous back-and-forth travels: 250 million euro's. All because the
French insisted on the plenary sessions being held in France
- Let the EU concentrate on monetary business and economical laws
that influence other member states. It was what the EU was meant
for in the first place. Don't meddle with laws in member's countries
that don't have anything to do with Europe as a whole.
- Completely quit the agricultural subsidies. At present, 70% (!) of the
EU's 135 billion budget goes to subsidies to (small) farmers.
In Europe, small farmers have no economical reason of existance.
The only way they can make profit is because of these subsidies. I'm
sorry to say it, but once again it was France (and Spain) that insisted
on this, as they have a lot of small-scale agriculture. But it's an unfair
competitive advantage. Which does three bad things: it keeps down
Africa, a continent that could make a lot of money on producing and
exporting food. It creates an unfair competitive advantage against
American, Russian and other farmers. And as I said above; it
gobbles up 70% of the EU's budget! That doesn't make any sense at
all...
Well there's my 2 cents anyway. Sorry for the wall of text. Let's just see what will happen in the years to come. Maybe it will take a real crisis (like a country going bankrupt) to wake up the EU and make it restructure itself. Perhaps we'll be doomed and everything goes to hell!!!
Well I'm a cynic and an optimist at the same time; a solution will always be found. The problem is, most of the time it'll be a short-term solution. But that seems to be our fate as human beings trying to govern on a large scale; when push comes to shove, short term will always > long term...
Europe as a whole won't go bankrupt, but I hope to see the EU becoming more pragmatic, and less political.