EU to elect continental president + control national budgets......

[Deleted]

You don't have to be right wing to be a fascist, it is a common misconception. I see national sovereignty as a major part of a national identity. i see the EU as undemocratic entity. true they do some good, but it is a money black hole not fit for purpose in my opinion.

They are democratizing the EU with the new elected president that they are proposing. Also, I never said you had to be right wing to be fascist, nationalism is not a characteristic of the right wing, it's an autoritarian characteristic. I have yet to feel opressed by the EU. Every nation will still keep it's national identity, look at the United Kingom, the four countries that compose it are still culturaly diferent. Cultural diferences also attract tourists, so it would be stupid to try to eliminate them.

[Dazzy]

I'm gonna say something a lot of people won't have the insight to say: I don't know or understand this well enough to say wether it's good or bad. I will not base my opinion simply on fearmongering.

Same here, but in the history of our species, giving a tiny group of people too much power has never worked out well in the long run.

In theory it could work well, in practice, it will most likely end up like most governments, run by a couple of the biggest corporations and the whole world economy will be screwed in ~50 years.

[Nerph-]

He isn't really that important, he is just a representative, without any real power. Barroso and Catherine Ashton have more power than him.

Figures, make a Belgian an imposter President who has less power than others ;D What's the point of his position then? (btw the Belgian part was me laughing at my own country)

[Korru]

Didn't they try to approve an European Constitution but it failed since France and Holland voted No?

[Baracuda]

I don't like the EU. The whole thing, for us in Sweden at least, is like donating to charity. We get nothing back, lots of the money is lost midway to corrupt people and the rest of it ends up in a black hole bankrupt country just requiring more and more and more...

If they introduced some nationwide strict immigration policy I would be a lot more positive towards it since Sweden would be forced to adapt.

[Deleted]

Figures, make a Belgian an imposter President who has less power than others ;D What's the point of his position then? (btw the Belgian part was me laughing at my own country)

He chairs the meetings of the european council. His position was created because the EU was lacking a "direction" due to the rotating presidencies, because they were changing policies every six months. He also does all the traveling around and having meetings with all sorts of important people in the name of the council.

[Deleted]

Good. A united federal Europe would be better for all the people of the EU. Going little by little like this is also good, pushing it to a federal nation from what we have now would be a too big move.

[RüneRS]

Lol this wont end well... afaik countries like the UK already pretty much want to leave the EU because of the mess other countries have gotten themselves into (someone correct me if I'm wrong). If this was to happen I'd bet the UK would leave, maybe other countries too.

I heard on the radio a few weeks ago that each Belgian (tax paying) citizen will be paying ~100 euros (per year I think?) to help other countries in the EU out of their crisis. While 100 euros might not seem a lot to some, it is to others and is 100 euros they could be using for their own reasons, not to help out countries that got themselves into a shitty mess. And with a population of between 10 and 11 million (can't say how many of that are tax payers), that's a lot of money leaving this country to help other ones, while to be honest, we need it ourselves. As far as I know Belgium is in debt too, not in a crisis way, but debt is still debt... (Again, if anything I've said is incorrect please correct me, this is only what I've read and heard from what could be unreliable sources).

By the way, doesn't the EU already have a President, Herman Van Rompuy, or is he not really the "President" of the EU?

He is called the president, but not in the way for example obama is. He's just head of the Eurocouncil.
Also, I think this is a very good thing. One man should never have power like the American presidents have.

[Nerph-]

Will this mean in the future (say 20+ years) we could be seeing an attempt at the making of the United States of Europe? It might sound silly but it's a serious question. Is that the direction the EU heads are trying to head?

Again, it might sound super silly but I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to politics.

[Applenazi]

Why do you Britons strive so hard to remain out of Europe? Because, eventually, we'll all be united and you'll just be one tiny country with a tiny economy and a tiny army. Can't you see that?

Ahahahaha.... Classic. You guys better be nice to the tiny UK and its tiny wittle army that you find so adorable, or its long time ally on the world stage might have to get involved. Don't really need to drop any names but as of this year we accounted for 41% of the military spending of the entire fucking planet and last time we came to Europe and teamed up with the United Kingdom shit got a little rowdy.

[RüneRS]

You don't have to be right wing to be a fascist, it is a common misconception. I see national sovereignty as a major part of a national identity. i see the EU as undemocratic entity. true they do some good, but it is a money black hole not fit for purpose in my opinion.

I like to see myself as a European first
then an Antwerp bloke
and only after I'm a Belgian

---------- Post added 2012-06-26 at 12:33 PM ----------

Will this mean in the future (say 20+ years) we could be seeing an attempt at the making of the United States of Europe? It might sound silly but it's a serious question. Is that the direction the EU heads are trying to head?

Again, it might sound super silly but I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to politics.

I think thats the general idea and I'm al in for that,
in Europe there aren't any borders anymore so its just a few logic steps further
I just hope we can do it better then the Americans did :S

[Lezarin]

Unfortunately been irish and some of the views expressed in this topic i dont have a right to air my view but oh well .might as well be the good little peasant and and say its all good .

Because no matter what ireland votes we,ll just be made vote again or threatened with no money access or starvation or something ,the usual tactics.In a way i tend to agree with the uk about this they are generally very anti european but tbh they have been at war with most of them since the day ofs of sticks and stones ,but as it stands if the centrialised government is not got a majority aka no single nation has a majority in it and the elected officials in it are paid by only an overall european union fund etc not their respective governments and if and this is a big if it isnt staffed by most of the political criminals we have in government at present ,then yes it might actually be a cause for some greater good .

But judging on the eu,s track record and europe in general i dont see this working you,ll have other countries leaving and considering even if ireland left we are finished the bailout package next year so we,d jsut have to repay the eu/imf loans we received.so even if we arent welcome in this new european order we still honor or debts.

[Deleted]

Will this mean in the future (say 20+ years) we could be seeing an attempt at the making of the United States of Europe? It might sound silly but it's a serious question. Is that the direction the EU heads are trying to head?

Since the creation of the European Coal and Steel Comunity, the project has allways been about making something similiar to it. But we don't know if it will be a federation, it could also be a confederation or something entirely new.

[Tydrane]

The EU was always a terrible idea. That a UK comedy programme from the 80s, Yes, Minister (a personal favourite) did on several occasions sum up the its weaknesses and failings with humour that cut right to the core of the reality of the EU (to the point where two characters with opposing political ideologies agree on all points) and remains relevant today says enough. If its appetite for the power of sovereign nations weren't so voracious, it would be a hilarious joke.

I'm not generally a fan of Alex Jones' InfoWars, personally I think that they generally trend a little too close to conspiracy theorists on many subjects, but I do follow Lord Christopher Monckton, who appeared recently to talk about the Rio +20 conference and discussed both the UN and EU's desire for greater power to interfere in the affairs of sovereign member states. Monckton, while not necessarily as funny as the aforementioned BBC programme (though leftist opponents of his views on climate change do like to make fun of his Graves' Disease) makes some cutting assessments of both these international bureacratic bodies. You can find the interview here.

[Deleted]

This is a terrible idea is so sad to see so many people willing to give up their national Sovereignty so readily. However this is the real reason behind the current engineered depression / financial crisis so people would accept this. It's so the Elite / New World Order / Illuminati or whatever you want to call them can create a united states of Europe. If everything in Europe was going well no one would go along with this idea as it would be seen for what it is. Beware making decisions under stress is a bad time to do it.

If you think things are bad now if this happens things will be so much worse for everyone. We need less government not more if you think the greek government was bad at running up debt imagine how big and bloated an EU government would be and how insanely expensive. It's just a huge gravy train for all those MEPs that don't even listen to their so called voters at all. Also tying to fit one size fits all policies and laws over the whole of Europe is completely crazy we need more local democracy and sovereignty not more concentration of power into a few peoples hands. If you think it's a good idea to give these power mad maniacs in Brussels, which got us into this mess in the first place, more power then I suggest doing some more research about this whole topic.

I mean just look what happened to the USSR why try and recreate this again. What we need to do to improve things is to implement the original American constitution why do you think America developed into the power it did. Sadly though America has turned it's back on these principles and is rapidly turning into a police state. Still like with most things people don't appreciate freedom until it is taken away from them. So I guess we all have to go through this cycle of Freedom then Tyranny Freedom then Tyranny our history is full of it.

Hopefully the revolution will come sooner then later though.

Good Luck

[RüneRS]

The EU was always a terrible idea. That a UK comedy programme from the 80s, Yes, Minister (a personal favourite) did on several occasions sum up the its weaknesses and failings with humour that cut right to the core of the reality of the EU (to the point where two characters with opposing political ideologies agree on all points) and remains relevant today says enough. If its appetite for the power of sovereign nations weren't so voracious, it would be a hilarious joke.

The reason the UK doesn't like the idea of a united europe is because now they have the biggest army and fleet (I think) in Europe, when a united Europe rises, there will be a united army that will probably be even bigger then the US army, because well 400mill peeps vs 250 mill, you do the math.

In short, a united europe will mean a lot less power for the UK.

[Deleted]

Can't wait to hear Nigel Farage talk about this lol.

Anyway, "nothing to do here.jpg". No way I'm going to live in a country with almost no power over its fiscal and financial affairs due to it being so compared to the other EU members. Finland and Holland have already told them to fuck off, but as usual, they're probably going to cave in after being offered some backroom bribes.

Van Rompuy and the rest of the idiots should've been removed ages ago. They've presided over one of the greatest failures in world history.

[Deleted]

The reason the UK doesn't like the idea of a united europe is because now they have the biggest army and fleet (I think) in Europe, when a united Europe rises, there will be a united army that will probably be even bigger then the US army, because well 400mill peeps vs 250 mill, well you do the math.

In short, a united europe will mean a lot less power for the UK.

Our military has nothing to do with why we hate the EU, we hate it due to all the bullshit laws and regulations being forced on us.

[Zoranon]

You know what the best part is? For all the talk of democratisation and citizen participation the EU leaders have become extremely afraid of referendums. So chances are that if some EU federation is created (and I do hope that will never happen), there will never be a popular vote to cement it. Why? Because they remember the EU constitution fiasco. In case of Ireland, they will be voting as many times as is necessary to achieve the "correct" result. Yeah democracy in action my ass...

[zox2]

Europe very much needs this. Let's hope the actual people governing the finances actually will know what the heck they are doing.