Germany's got too much nationalism??? Are you insane? Germans hardly dare to hoist their flags during soccer games, same is for politics, dude.

A little less bureacracy and nationalism would help. (Especially the french and Germans).

quote:"[...]Seems to me that only Germany and France are actually trying to do something for the Union[...]"
They have the most interest in "doing" things for the union, as in changing things, since they are the two countries that are paying the most and receiving the least.

dude8nijon  (2008 / 10 / 17, 02:50)

Besides, we have here a typical "prisoner's dilemma": each member state thinks all others are trying to get as much as possible from the deep EU wallet for themselves, and will behave just like all others. Seems to me that only Germany and France are actually trying to do something for the Union, all others are either pretty passive or too egoistic (consider Poland's behavior after its accession). Therefore, the more members EU has, the more difficult it becomes to achive a political unity.

dude8nijon  (2008 / 10 / 17, 02:39)

There are certain levels of countries' integration. The step before the last one (Political Union - the ultimate integration stage) is Monetary Union (same currency in all member states), which is still not 100% complete yet. It's naive to think EU will ever make it to political union simply due to prevelance of national interests over Union's interests. Politicians will never sacrifice their national interests, for they'll be eaten alive by their own citizens and more nationalistic oponents.

Daniel  (2008 / 10 / 16, 00:21)

The problem is that the EU is quite abstract to the "normal" citizen. Therefore it's hard to say wether the EU is doing fine or not...

dude8nijon  (2008 / 10 / 11, 09:29)

Exactly! EU is like an open short-term relationship: living together, but still leading your own life and constantly cheating on your partner. Everyone says he/she is happy, but in reality there's neither trust nor taking care of each other.

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