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This idea of "alignment" is absurd, countries have non-transitive border arrangements all the time. It might bring the always-questionable idea that the EU ever
by bcoates 8y ago
This idea of "alignment" is absurd, countries have non-transitive border arrangements all the time. It might bring the always-questionable idea that the EU ever had a "single market" under scrutiny, but that's weird ideological posturing not a serious obstruction to Irish access to the UK market and vice versa.
- barrkel 8y agoAlignment is a mechanism to prevent beggar-thy-neighbour policies that lead to a race to the bottom, with everybody worse off. If you have a porous border without alignment, you get smuggling. The EU single market is a definitional concept, it exists by definition. Not all goods and services are in the single market, but the scope gradually increases over time. Necessarily, as the scope increases, the need for harmonization increases, and that's what often leads to accusations of loss of sovereignty.
- davidgay 8y agoIIUC, the EU does not allow that (no separate trade treaties fur individual EU members).