The European Unioun How Good Is It For Europe?

[Don Rizzle]

I have always been quite pro euro but now i have been having second thaughts, considering 50% of our trade is with the EU we shouldn't really be fucusing on increasing trade with europe when we already have good trade links, seems to more of an exercise to secure ourselves as a world power in the future. What we should really be doing is focusing on is building good trade links with the likes of china and india (former british colonies) where they have rapid growth and are likely to dwarf our economies here in europe, we currently import lots from them but export virtually nothing, from britains perspective i no longer see much relivane to locking us into the new EU constition, we should remain in the free trading block but do away with all beurocracy in brussels and persue our own interests (like switzerland does)

[Don Seer]

it has its pro's and con's.. i have no problems with the EU as long as it doesnt affect / limit the actual running of the country too much.

i dont like how we seem to carry and pay subsidies to weaker countries, and where things like french farmers seem to get cared for.. whilst our own are going bust.. competition is only good if the playing field is level

it is good in how it establishes better workers rights and fair trade rules

the Euro is a step too far for me though

[Don Rizzle]

yea but if we in effect become the united states of europe the only way our trade links are likely to expand are east as far as turkey and maybe down to north africa.

I hate the french and the corrupt franco-german alliance and their abuses of the system in europe but now they have lost some power with the new soviet countries joining, so maybe now we can abolish the CAP which serves the purpose of making the french farmers rich and the third world farmers in poverty (we tried to abolish it a couple of years ago but the french would not concede).

I'm undecided on the Euro, on the one side the pound has proved to be consistantly strong which has hurt our manufacturing industry, if we joined the ECB we would get lower interest rates which would be ok for when i want to start my morgage (although that change in interest rates would also spark a rise in house prices again!) the euo also eliminates the risk of exchange rate fluctuatiions within europe but i don't know how well the one size fits all system will effect britain, when britain has enough regional variation as it is.

We don't need tougher trade rules handed down from brussle its exactly our lose restrictions that has earnt us foriegn investment over other european countries, we need our juniour doctors to work 70 hour weeks or are we to let waiting lists rise even more? do you really worry about our looser hireing and firing laws? if you a good able worker you'll be able to find work there is plenty of opportunities out there.

I agree on the subsidies point i think we are net losers but don't think we have it the worst (germany maybe?)

I think rules and laws/ taxation / forign policy / fishing territories etc. should be handled by our parliament not brussles

[Don Seer]

housing is a huge issue for people like us...

i'm saving.. but when i can afford.. who knows..

[7even]

It sucks for Germany cause we have to pay so much when we arent even the richest cause we have a rich image or something. lol..
It's horrible all these eastern europe countries get in. Their economy is worth nothing and it's much cheaper for western companies to move there, so in consequence the big companies will move to eastern europe and western europe will go to hell.
In other words fuck the EU as it is now... it was fine as long as we had like 15 states in the EU.. but now? Fuck the EU.

[Don Seer]

the EU is moving into areas where it doesnt belong.. e.g like controlling each countries finaances via the Euro

[7even]

the EU is moving into areas where it doesnt belong.. e.g like controlling each countries finaances via the Euro

Ive never been a fan of the Euro anyway.. The Deutsche Mark was a very stable and good currency.. now with the Euro, everything got more expensive, especially the things that cost like 0.20 to 2.00 pounds.. apart from that, the Euro is swinging up and down dollar-style, no way anywhere near as stable as the previous german currency and also its too strong compared to the US-$ which sometimes leads to certain export problems.