Quote:
Originally Posted by Grisu";p="
Sorry but I am in disagreement. The EU should be a trade group, not a common government. It has brought nothing but grief since the Euro came, has destroyed more than it has remedied and you will never get all the folks under the same hat. Also, how do you weigh the seats in parliament? Do the Dutch with their 15 million inhabitans get the same amount of seats as the Germans with 75 Million? How about the rights of the Dutch to refuse laws made for them by others? How about national identies? There has been a long history of pride in each state of the EU. You can't do away with it!
As far as military unity goes, we already have NATO and that should remain the primary and sole military organization....
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This is partly value, partly practical question..
I would say, that there are some core facts for more deeper integration.. These creates the pratical side of the question....
1. The free-trade area is here to stay.. The internal markets of single European countries are too small to be considered healthy or competitive..
2. In a free-trade area, where free capital and people movements are allowed, there will be a competition for capital, employing investments and people.. There will be also increasing competition to decrease the minimum wages and the minimal worker benefits to lure the investments..
3. The fact 2 will limit individual goverment's choises overall.. Especially this development will sabotage individual state's possibilities to implement social programs..
4. This competition can be only restricted with the harmonization of taxation and the economic frame.. If the European people overall value social programs etc.., the decisions can effectively only be made at the European level.. For this reason, some kind of European legistlative body is needed (which is also exist).. It would be also preferable, if it had an healthy and viable decision making system, so it could actually make and execute the needed decisions..
5. In many cases there are certain 'benefits of greatness'.. We can take an example of the military research, where the benefits became clear.. If military research is done European wide instead of single countries, this will easily 10 time the efficiency of research.. There is no need to reinvent the wheel in every singular country..
6. One of the greatest benefits became in the area of foreign politics.. If the European countries are able to behave as a single entity, their collective ability to operate and realize their political goals is considerable greater ~ like comparable to the U.S.. This presuming, that the European countries can accept some common political goals and values..
7. The integration of the military supports first security, but also the ability to operate and execute foreign policy..
8. It will pacify Europe.. The possibility that the WW3 would be fought inside Europe disappears..
These are the practical reasons.. The value reasons are like more connected with the national identity.. There are of course other value questions, but - in reality - they might not be so simple as they look..
For example, I would see the reasoning of keeping the decisions and power near the citizens/nations questionable.. This is simply because the number 2.. If that 'power' is not transferred to the higher level, it is likely destroyed by the economic competition of the member states inside the free-trade area.. This makes the reasoning quite futile..
- BtD