Verbose
Deity
The EU even got stronger in the last five years. So far, it always does when put under preassure by events. If the last five years didn't bring it down, or even the Euro, odds are slim the next five will.
European Parliament election, 2014
- Thread starter Loppan Torkel
- Start date
Happy for the eu. It would make me awfully sad if the actual eu suffered something, cause institutions are people too.
Verbose
Deity
No it's not, but neither is it some kind of magical cash-machine, that some people thought...
gay_Aleks
from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
You mean the EU won't pour down thousands of euros into agricultural subsidies that definitely won't get stolen forever?
Borachio
Way past lunacy
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You could be right. But that's not my feeling on the issue.
I think the next general election will see UKIP hammered back into irrelevance. And maybe, maybe, there'll be a referendum on continuing EU membership. But even if there is one, I can't see the UK leaving the EU. It just wouldn't make any sense to do so.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Yep. Staying in the EU would require the mainstream parties to actually stand up and defend the membership, which the Conservatives won't do and Labour... it might, if its leaders stopped being so cowardly.
Domen
Misico dux Vandalorum
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
That's the percentage of MEPs, not the percentage of the domestic government.
Borachio
Way past lunacy
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I don't disagree. People do like to moan and groan. And not many people would be comfortable with a federal Europe.
But leaving the EU? I can't see it happening. How would it work? How much would it cost the UK to do so?
To date, how many countries have left the EU (and its predecessor)? Greenland, Algeria and Saint Barthelemy?
A far more pressing issue is Scottish independence. And an independent Scotland, if I've understood the situation, would immediately seek EU membership.
Another possibility is that UK is expelled from the EU. Maybe for moaning and groaning too much.
Terxpahseyton
Nobody
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Perhaps the EU follows the same logic as markets. A lot of investment and speculation and then boom.
(or not, I mostly want to say that I find this sort of reasoning very flimsy - a trend is not really meaningful without analyzing cause and effect)
Not in Ukraine, it's not.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Hmm, you're right, they aren't in the European Parliament, are they? Which makes the graphic even more confusing. Svoboda controls 10% of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada seats, not 2%.
Tahuti
Writing Deity
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Ukraine isn't even member of the EU, so why would it send MEP's in the first place?
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Why would you quote my post in which I acknowledged that I was wrong and why, in order to tell me how and why I was wrong?
bugwar
Emperor
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From the article:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the 28-nation bloc's most powerful leader, acknowledged that her centre-right party's candidate, former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, may not end up heading the executive European Commission.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, under pressure after the anti-EU UK Independence Party won the European Parliament election in Britain, came to the EU summit in Brussels determined to block the nomination of Juncker, seen in London as an old-style European federalist.
Sweden, the Netherlands and Hungary also voiced reservations and the 28 leaders mandated European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who chairs EU summits, to hold consultations on a slate of candidates for senior positions and a policy agenda for the next European Commission, Merkel told reporters.
...
"As a member of the EPP, I supported Jean-Claude Juncker as our candidate for the presidency of the Euroepan Commission and I haven't forgotten that. But I still have to respect the treaty," she told a news conference, rebuffing questions from German reporters about breaking her word to voters.
...
With far-right, anti-EU parties sweeping to unprecedented victories in France, Britain and Denmark and populists gaining ground elsewhere, the leaders faced tough questions about the future direction of European integration.
Drawing initial lessons from a bruising election, which handed a quarter of all parliament seats to Eurosceptic or protest parties, several leaders said they would seek ways to reorient the EU's work to make it more relevant to citizens.
...
Cameron, whose Conservatives were beaten into third place behind the triumphant UKIP and the Labour opposition, said the EU needed to reform itself radically,
"The European Union cannot just shrug off these results and carry on as before," he said. "We need change.
...
Hollande, weakened by his Socialist party's crushing defeat by the far-right National Front in the European election, joined Cameron's call for the EU to step back from citizens' lives.
"Europe has to listen to what happened in France," he said.
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/27/uk-eu-election-summit-idUKKBN0E70ZN20140527
Yep.
Sure looks like the EU fanboys are in a sweat since they found out that they aren't loved by a big chunk of the voters.
Tahuti
Writing Deity
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Glad I don't actively consume any news media anymore. For a press bureau that is supposed to be respectable, the article's headline is of Daily Fail standards.
gangleri2001
Garbage day!!!
Well, looks like the enemy has began to realign his frontlines as expected. We've to watch them carefully.
why do "eurocritics" always have to revert to such militiaristic jargon?
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Well, I do believe that most high-level politicians, intellectuals, experts, business leaders and other "elites" understand that. But do the voters appreciate that? Especially since 2/3 of British politicians have cynically fanned the flames of euroscepticism and used the EU as a scapegoat and distraction at every turn.
What they have now is a widely eurosceptic populace that wants out. If Cameron gives them the referendum, there is little doubt that the result will be "we want out". What then?
If I were the Scottish leaders, I'd only hold that referendum AFTER the EU referendum. Because if England drags them out of the EU, I am sure the Scottish voters would be more willing to secede. It would give the EU a lever to pressure London into taking some responsibility for its actions.
There is no mechanism for that that I know of. It would have to be done outside the treaty framework, by basically bullying Britain to ask for withdrawal. And by the way, very few people actually really want Britain to leave the EU; Britain has strong backers among the more liberal member states. But Continentals are really getting tired of constant obstructionism and trouble making. Cameron also managed to pee off Britain's allies in new member states by suggesting their development funding be cut and in general ignoring them in favour of high-level backroom deals with Merkel and the other big countries.
If the Conservatives manage to win the next general election in Britain, it will likely sound the death knell for the UK's membership in the EU.
