Clarissa's Blog

4 responses to “The Future of the EU”

1. 

   J. Otto Pohl

   December 28, 2014

   The AU (African Union) doesn’t even do much of that. But, they do like to send Peace Keeping Forces to places like Sudan and Mali.

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2. 

   matt

   December 28, 2014

   At a deeper level the fundamental sin of the EU was having a monetary union without a fiscal union (i.e. European central bank.. but each country still with its own budget). Only way EU stays together long-term is if more power goes to the “national level” (I believe Brussels right?), and less goes to each country. Basically Germany, france , Italy etc all need to be comes states (like Arkansas, new York, California) and cede power to Brussels (ie. Washington). I just don’t think that is very likely whatsoever.

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   1. 

      aglaonika

      December 29, 2014

      “At a deeper level the fundamental sin of the EU was having a monetary union without a fiscal union.”

      Yes, I agree, this is one of the reasons why the EU is so inept. It’s just not strong enough. Basically every member state has a significant political force with a huge support basis that wants to step out of it which is a huge incertainty for businesses. How will we compete with the USA and Asia this way? The USA member states don’t threaten the federal state with exit in every single occassion when they don’t like something in the central legislation. The attitude of the EU member states remind me that of a small kid. In Eastern Europe I had to listen that the EU only served the needs of the Western countries (yeah, of course, that’s why the corrupt Eastern European politicians steal that much EU money every year). In Western Europe I have to listen that the EU only serves the needs of the Eastern countries (yeah, of course, it’s the powerless periphery who tends to rule…). It’s so tiring, mainly because these fits on behalf of the populist politicians have zero sense, because nobody will exit, as every stakeholder with real economic power wants to keep the toll- and borderfree EU markets.

      The EU will remain because big corporations won’t let it fall apart, as they want to remain competitive in the globalized world, and in the new era of the “market state” corporations will rule. It was so professional how they manipulated the Scots with their economic and financial threats against voting to independence …. in fact their marketing machinery turned the poll results in less than a week … the same thing will happen when someone will want to leave the EU, and it will work again as nobody wants any inconvenience in the consumerist member states (Eastern Europe is also consumerist, we learn quite fast).

      The new EU VAT tax regulation recently freaked me out btw, and also excellently shows the ineptitude of the current, decentralized EU: companies will have to pay the VAT in the country where they sell the product, not in the country where they’re located (that means 27 different rules instead of 1). Good luck for me with tracking back the country of origin of each customer of my online products, and even more luck to my accountant, the calculations will be really easy, as not only the VAT rates are different in every state but also the VAT limits. And if we talk about ineptitude, it’s also worth to mention the veto right of each individual member state that basically makes the efficient decision-making impossible. The 2/3 majority rule (that works well everywhere else) may have too much sense.

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      1. 

         Clarissa

         December 29, 2014

         “It was so professional how they manipulated the Scots with their economic and financial threats against voting to independence”

         • Scots are simply smart. They know that the time of national independences is long long gone. I wish the same kind of smartness on the Catalans.

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