What's the point of EU?

I am never for more concentrated power among fewer and for sovereigns to give in to such. I think the USA should pull out of the UN. I think other countries will now pull out of the EU.

If the EU falls apart, Russia wins.

Just like when TPP went down in flames China won.

The point of the EU (formerly, the Common Market) is free trade without impediments based solely on arbitrary post WWII borders.

One of those impediments was disparate currencies that fluctuated so much as to make trade difficult. Another was travel restrictions that hampered the ability of workers to go where jobs were more plentiful.

I have mixed feelings.

I think the EU’s role in trade and easing movements of people and streamlining legal issues is mostly positive.

However I think one of the best things about Europe is the diversity of cultures and the differences between nations, and in some cases sharing laws tramples on some of that, which I see as negative. If and when large corporations and other very wealthy/powerful people organize to manipulate the EU for reasons of power and gain, that’s also a potentially very bad thing. And I am opposed to some EU laws I have heard of such as making it illegal to speak out against the EU – that seems like evil squelching of civil/human rights.

It was an attempt to reshape Europe along the lines of the United States. I thought it was a good idea but it appears to be failing. However at least we don’t have Trump.

I agree with @Hawaii_Jake @Rarebear @zenvelo and @flutherother as to what it was meant to be and the cost if it fails. Whatever went wrong with the original idea, they really need to fix it. It was a good idea and may mean whether or not Europe will become the another Middle East.

There isn’t one, it’s an outdated beaurocratic gentlemen’s club that long since lost it’s usefulness.
Us Brits are the standard bearers of sense where others are sure to follow…

^^LOL. You Brits. An amazing tribe and I love you guys for your boldness, independence and even that goddamned self-entitlement that gets on just about everyone else’s nerves. Unique people for sure. I remember when the Chunnel opened and Thatcher got on TV to announce: “The European Continent is now connected to us.” instead of the other way around. I laughed my ass off. You could hear the thunder of 300 million face slaps all over Europe.

I can’t understand how this cultural character, or everyone else’s over there, are jeopardized by the original idea that @zenvelo describes above. I can’t understand the growing reticence against this.

Never mind that pointing shit, put my name up in red this instant young man…harrumphh!!

^ I’m not sure if you’re joking or being serious….

Many European states used to be global powers in their own right, with colonies around the world and with major influence in trade and commerce.

That all changed after the Second World War, when the USA and USSR became the dominant global powers—joined more recently by China. For European states to maintain global influence and be treated as a super power, they had to collaborate.

There’s a 101 things wrong with the EU, the worst being the fiscal policies foisted on those states that adopted the Euro currency. And apart from the nice perks like visa free travel around Europe, and harmonisation of commercial regulations that actually cut bureaucracy and administration for businesses—its geopolitical purpose is as a bulwark against dominance by other global super powers.

The main advantage of the EU is that any member state becomes at least a modestly influential partner in a major global trading bloc, and maintains their political independence from the USA or Russia.

One criticism of the EU that I saw was that individual countries lose the ability to use monetary policy, raising or lowering interest rates, to boost their economies.

<giggles>

@LostInParadise You’re wrong there. The Brits never took the Euro. Some nations in the EU aren’t on the Euro. That is a different issue.

The EU was formed as a way to create standardisations in trade, product standards and education and defense so that there could be an easier flow of people and products and security information. Schengen (or the EØU) is just trade and people and you can learn about it here: http://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen_en

Imagine having 28 countries in an area the size of Texas and each country has border control, trade alliances that require updating and shmoozing constantly, education systems that have different requirements, so it’s citizens are ONLY qualified to work within it’s own borders, and has NO cooperation between security and policing and it’s own standards and practices involving manufacture, wages and quality control.

The EU is progress. Leaving the EU and Schengen is regressive, isolationist, politics based only in fear and racism.