What's the EU?

[Cheezy the Wiz]

European Union... Personally, I dont know how so many countries that hate eachother can work together... I'll give it 5 more years at the most.

Well then you already lose by a longshot. The EU has been around since 1957.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU

 

[Whomp]

No, 13. I don't see anything wrong with it

No worries Nuclear. I think if you added "to you" at the end and you would've received the answers to your question. I don't think the members necessarily agree what it is to them.

The U.S. may have regional differences but the EU's are wider.
Theirs is more difficult since they are trying to reunite people and traditions from different countries. And if for every kind of problem exist a solution then the only solution for this problem is common social structure, transition of power from one country to another, common language, common currency and free movement of people. I think these are some of the major challenges the Union has.

 

[Babbler]

Hey, There's this club at my school and we talk about History and Politics. Tommorow we talk about the EU, and me being an American in a British boarding school, I don't know what the heck it is. So, can some one please tell me?

Semi-effective union of 27 nations in Europe. The most important thing to remember is it's neither the new superpower, or the new Third Reich as some people fantasize it to be.

 

[Mega Tsunami]

According to this chart, Spain is the country with most immigrants, and Netherlands with most emmigrants. And still the UK imposes most restrictions. Did you know that today, December 31st 2006, citizens from Romania and Bulgaria need visa to enter the UK? Some hours before entering the EU! Honestly I just don't get it.

When the EU went up to 25 in 2004 the UK was one of the few countries which had an open door policy. Something like 600,000 Poles, Czechs etc. came to the UK and on the whole we welcomed them because mostly they came to work.
The Govt. simply thought that it was time we no longer had an open door policy and let other EU countries take their share. Originally the UK Govt. thought that only 15,000 Poles etc. would come over per year so when 600,000 turned up all of a sudden we had to do something! Our schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructures just could not take any more people.

The various charts and figures on this thread are not up to date enough to show this sudden influx.

That doesn't surprise me. When the visa-regime with Czech rep. was lifted, they placed their officers at our airport and actually scanned people who were traveling to Britain. They were turned back when they had slightly darker skin. Yes, I am not kidding, they were so afraid of the Roma gypsies they discriminated against them openly, moreover, they did so on our soil.

So much for the British tolerance I don't blame them though, most of the gypsies just wanted to apply for asylum there and let Britain feed them

I don’t believe this at all (the turning back because of skin colour). It is the very last thing we would do so can you please provide some proof.
What I predict: someone was turned back because they couldn’t prove they were an EU25er. They had a darker skin; ipso facto their skin was the reason.

 

[Winner]

I don’t believe this at all (the turning back because of skin colour). It is the very last thing we would do so can you please provide some proof.
What I predict: someone was turned back because they couldn’t prove they were an EU25er. They had a darker skin; ipso facto their skin was the reason.

These checks were set up in 2001 for a sole reason - to stop Roma influx to Britain, where they seeked asylum (from what?).

Few reporters of the public TV station CT (Česká Televize) with Roma ancestry, very decent people, were turned back for no reason, while their "white" colleagues had no problems at all.


Few articles from BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/pm/1476459.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1478360.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1505349.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1465107.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2316153.stm

 

[Mega Tsunami]

@Winner – Sorry, I didn’t realise you were talking about 2001, long before the Czech Rep joined the EU.
Reading your links I am afraid it still looks like ‘heresay’ to me.

Non Roma Czechs coming to Britain could not claim asylum once they were here – only Romas could (by claiming they were being persecuted in CR). Therefore only Romas or suspected Romas were being denied entry.
Makes complete sense to me – somewhat unfair on Romas genuinely wanting just to visit the UK but it has nothing directly to do with their skin colour.
If Romas were white and other Czechs non-white then it would appear an anti-white thing.

I am sure deciding who was likely to make a claim for asylum and who was not was a very difficult thing and I am sure they got it wrong some of the time.

 

[Great_Scott]

Well considering we've already defined what the EU is...and seen about 30 lame jokey remarks - no offense, along with some good points..

I'd like to congratulate the EU. It's a modern marvel to see countries working together to unite in peace and prosperity. Perhaps it will be looked upon as the first step in a progression away from nations and towards one unified human state.

Also, congrats to Romania & Bulgaria, now official members. Which is great, as my partner is Romanian and now she is a citizen of the EU (I have a British passport).

And finally, I think we'll be in for an interesting couple of decades. How will the US react to the fact the EU combined now has a higher GNP than them... and growing in leaps and bounds?... and the fact that Industries & countries are now making plans to use the Euro as a replacement for the US dollar.

That all said, I also admire Germany & France's stance towards the turmoil in Iraq... I only hope their good examples will one day influence America to do a little bit of growing up and evolving.

From me, a EU citizen living in Australia.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

The various charts and figures on this thread are not up to date enough to show this sudden influx.

They are. Last one is of 2006. Two years after your sudden influx.

 

[Mega Tsunami]

They are. Last one is of 2006. Two years after your sudden influx.

The census is dated 1/2006 and says it is based on data for 2005 but the UK’s data is Dec 2004, so I am afraid it does not reflect properly what has happened in the UK since the last expansion.
To be honest, the government here hasn’t the foggiest idea how many immigrants really are coming and going. They probably just made up the figures they have given to the EU anyway.
They judge the numbers by doing surveys of non-Brits coming and going at major airports but ignore the smaller airports when many Poles, for example, seem to fly cheap airlines using those smaller airports.

 

[Yeeek]

Now we are just waiting for British... When are you guys going to be part of the Euro Zone?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

The census is dated 1/2006 and says it is based on data for 2005 but the UK’s data is Dec 2004, so I am afraid it does not reflect properly what has happened in the UK since the last expansion.
To be honest, the government here hasn’t the foggiest idea how many immigrants really are coming and going. They probably just made up the figures they have given to the EU anyway.
They judge the numbers by doing surveys of non-Brits coming and going at major airports but ignore the smaller airports when many Poles, for example, seem to fly cheap airlines using those smaller airports.

In opposite to other countries where all immigrants fly in the most expensive airlines... And I am fairly sure that your govern knows in which airlines the immigrants fly and knows how to extrapolate. You dont need to look for supposed "particularities" in the UK case to have an excuse to be more restrictive since it seems to be the official tendency in the whole EU.

 

[Mirc]

Now we are just waiting for British... When are you guys going to be part of the Euro Zone?

They would certainly be accepted in the Euro Zone any time, however, few Brits are for changing the currency. Maybe the opinion will change in the future, I don't know.

 

[Mega Tsunami]

In opposite to other countries where all immigrants fly in the most expensive airlines... And I am fairly sure that your govern knows in which airlines the immigrants fly and knows how to extrapolate. You dont need to look for supposed "particularities" in the UK case to have an excuse to be more restrictive since it seems to be the official tendency in the whole EU.

I don’t know what your agenda is for criticising the UK for its change of policy but we don’t need an excuse in the first place. Only the UK, Sweden and Ireland had open door policies last time so don’t you think it should be the turn of other countries to open their borders this time?

And did you know - unemployment among the young here – 18 to 24 – has been rising significantly of late and is now at its highest since the mid 90s. Much of this rise is being blamed on the influx of Poles etc.
Another reason to not open our borders – not that we need it.

And as you can see from below: Our borders are not closed entirely to R&Bs, just restricted.

United Kingdom
The country was, toghether with Sweden and Ireland, the only one not to impose transitional measures on EU-8 workers in the first place. Its open-borders policy led to an estimated labour immigration of 450.000 to 600.000 within the two-and-a-half years following the May 2004 enlargement; this amounts to about 30-fold of what was previously expected. In spite of the undoubtedly positive impact that the immigration of EU-8 workers has had on the British economy, the UK government decided on 24 October 2006 not to apply a similarly liberal scheme to Romanian and Bulgarian job-seekers (See EurActiv, 25 October 2006). Under the scheme announced, only a few experts and 20,000 unskilled workers for the food processing and agriculture industries will be allowed into Britain

http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/free-movement-labour-eu-25/article-129648

 

[Mega Tsunami]

They would certainly be accepted in the Euro Zone any time, however, few Brits are for changing the currency. Maybe the opinion will change in the future, I don't know.

Maybe you should be looking at the opinion polls in Euroland: it appears they don’t much care for the Euro, never mind us Brits.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/euro-gets-blame-for-many-woes/2007/01/01/1167500061276.html

FEWER than half of citizens in the euro zone are happy with the European monetary system five years to the day after it replaced the franc, the mark and other national currencies, and after a painful rise in the cost of living.
A growing number of Europeans believe the biggest monetary revolution in history has done more harm than good to national economic growth, the job market and living standards, opinion polls show.
Some of the highest dissatisfaction rates were recorded in France, Germany and Italy, which were the most enthusiastic advocates of the move to the euro.
A poll published last week in France showed that 52 per cent of the French thought the euro had been a "bad thing".

 

[Winner]

Now we are just waiting for British... When are you guys going to be part of the Euro Zone?

Never, they still believe pound can be the world's most important currency again

 

[Mega Tsunami]

Never, they still believe pound can be the world's most important currency again

I don’t think it is a matter of wanting to hold onto the pound so much as simply not wanting the Euro. There is no good reason for Britain to revert to the Euro yet; maybe one day it will be right, just not in the foreseeable future.

All we want is to be able to adjust our interest rates, exchange rates etc. to suite us, not some country hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The strength or otherwise of our currency is not that important (as long as it is not too weak of course).

And it seems many French, Germans, Italians etc. are thinking the same as us …

 

[Rossiya]

The EU, economically, is really only good for poor countries.

 

[Disenfrancised]

Never, they still believe pound can be the world's most important currency again

Nah, its just that monetary union isn't a good idea . I'd very pro-EU, a common defense force and more political integration would be great, but monetary union is foolish at the current time.

Also we have cooler pictures on our money

 

[Rossiya]

Also we have cooler pictures on our money

Of Elizabeth Windsor? Yeah, that's cool.

 

[Winner]

Nah, its just that monetary union isn't a good idea . I'd very pro-EU, a common defense force and more political integration would be great, but monetary union is foolish at the current time.

Also we have cooler pictures on our money

You mean that nice old lady? Well... no, I'll keep my mouth shut, but personally, I find Euro notes very nice, they did a good job with that bridges and aqueducts.