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Forums - Politics Discussion - "European Members", What do you think about the European Union?

Faxanadu on 02 August 2012

The Union is a good thing. Bad idea was to let countries like Greece in the Euro.



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maximrace on 02 August 2012

The EU itself is a very good thing, our lives would be much worse without it. But the EU is not the same as the EMU (euro). The euro hasn't been that good economically... But it makes life easier ( no currency exchange). And if you say your country needs to leave the EU ( mostly brits) that would be a stupid thing to do because such countries would get isolated in european trade.



DigitalDevilSummoner on 02 August 2012
kowenicki said:

Becuase we didnt fall for the nonsense spewed by french and german politicians and germany.  The single currency was about making german exports cheap for the rest of Europe... nothing more.

Never ever ever was a single currency going to work across multiple disperate markets.


Exactly.

A currency is supposed to reflects a country's economy. Greece, Spain and  Ireland are not in the same league as Germany in terms of industry so this kind of problem was innevitable, these countries need to devalue their currency to be even slightly competitive.

On the other hand, these weak economies are helping the euro maintain a low excange rate in order for the German exports to keep from being overvalued and becoming more expensive.

 

All the benifits of a strong industry, with non of the drawbacks of am expensive currency. That's why everyone hates Germany today

 

Germany benefits from exports within the European Union more than any other country 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-27/mendez-de-vigo-calls-on-germany-to-show-solidarity-bild-reports.html



McGran on 02 August 2012
kowenicki said:
maximrace said:
The EU itself is a very good thing, our lives would be much worse without it. But the EU is not the same as the EMU (euro). The euro hasn't been that good economically... But it makes life easier ( no currency exchange). And if you say your country needs to leave the EU ( mostly brits) that would be a stupid thing to do because such countries would get isolated in european trade.


give me an example of that and why in the name of sanity would any exporter want to isolate a potential market.  This is the propaganda Europeans fall for.   Pretty sure BMW want to sell their cars to as many people as possible for example.

No customs are levied on goods travelling within the EU and members of the EU impose a common external tariff on all goods entering the union.  So if we leave the EU everything we sell to the EU will be more expensive buy (result - reduced exports).  Your BMW would also be more expensive as the UK would apply a tariff on imports to encourage you to buy British.

If you've ever bought a valuable item from outside the EU you'll have seen this in action - a letter from the post office telling you that there is a VAT (and possible duty charge) to pay on your item.

58% of our exports and 53% of our imports are with the EU - we need to be inside.



Badassbab on 02 August 2012
Kasz216 said:
mrstickball said:
Funny how the only states remotely solvent in the EU don't use the Euro, sans Germany.

The EU shows how woeful government can be when it continues to increase in size. It should be an example for the US, but no one seems to follow.


I suppose that depends on which way you want to look at it.

Germany is solvent because it's monetary policy has huge influences from Freiberg economics.

However... had the Europeon Union had been larger government wise... and been able to a force individual countries to balance there budgets... this problem would of been much less severe.

The Europeon Debt crisis could of been solved by more federalism (the above)

or less federalism (No Euro.)

The Euro as it is however essentially relies on countries government to NOT baloon... on what essentially would be a "State" level.

Germany also has geography on it's side. All the major nation states do. 






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McGran on 02 August 2012
kowenicki said:
McGran said:
kowenicki said:
maximrace said:
The EU itself is a very good thing, our lives would be much worse without it. But the EU is not the same as the EMU (euro). The euro hasn't been that good economically... But it makes life easier ( no currency exchange). And if you say your country needs to leave the EU ( mostly brits) that would be a stupid thing to do because such countries would get isolated in european trade.


give me an example of that and why in the name of sanity would any exporter want to isolate a potential market.  This is the propaganda Europeans fall for.   Pretty sure BMW want to sell their cars to as many people as possible for example.

No customs are levied on goods travelling within the EU and members of the EU impose a common external tariff on all goods entering the union.  So if we leave the EU everything we sell to the EU will be more expensive buy (result - reduced exports).  Your BMW would also be more expensive as the UK would apply a tariff on imports to encourage you to buy British.

If you've ever bought a valuable item from outside the EU you'll have seen this in action - a letter from the post office telling you that there is a VAT (and possible duty charge) to pay on your item.

58% of our exports and 53% of our imports are with the EU - we need to be inside.


I guess that's why nobody in Europe buys Japanese or US goods then. And why the Scandinavian nations are on their knees..... :-/

The USA economy is worth over $14 trillion. The UK - $2 trillion. 

Japan's economy is double the size of the UK's and they are discussing creating a free trade zone with China and South Korea rather than leaving one.

I'm not sure what your point about Scandinavian nations is since (Norway aside) they're all in the EU.



Squall_Leonhart on 02 August 2012

I really hope that the UK decide to leave the EU as it is doing nothing but worsen the economy of the country and enabling millions from the continent to come over to our country and be allowed to claim benefits when they have never put into the system...

The UK's welfare bill is over £40 BILLION!!! Which is just shocking!!



KillerMan on 02 August 2012

Well obviously it has its flaws (especially with Euro) but with recent voting about ACTA we saw the good side of EU. It had already passed voting in 22 countries including UK but because European Parliament voted against it was scrapped entirely.



MrT-Tar on 03 August 2012

I'm in favour of continued U.K membership of the EU.  However, I do believe the EU needs reform, in particular in cutting down on the level of regulation and increased democratisation (I feel it is ridiculous that only the European Parliament is elected by the public).  The Euro however I have always been strongly against, even from the age of 13 I have always stated that having a monetary, but not fiscal union will lead to future problems. 

 

I also think I should post this QI clip before someone inevitably posts about bendy bananas - skip to 14:00




zuvuyeay on 03 August 2012

as far as i can tell standards of living are only going to go down in europe,i cannot see any benefit of being tied to lefty socialists,enviromentalists who cannot afford any of their dreaming ,honestly trying to save what exactly the only thing you need to worry about is being economically competitive and they spend their time doing exactly the opposite

why would anyone want more layers of mind numbing champagne socialists and being able to be vetoed by a country that has a population of 750 in making life changing situations

money and power is running out of europe and you need to be swift on your feet not anchored to the titanic

why would trade cease to exist for britain if we were set adrift,i don't understand the scaremongering on this

i guess i am in a minority anyway because i want the uk to split let alone get out of meddling eurocrats,i cannot understand why you want to be ruled by 27 decision makers,if you had the whole street you lived in telling you how to spend/pay your families budget/bills you tell them to go fuck themselves and rightly so



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