4 ms·
1. the expansion is over. last expansion resulted in some pretty nasty stuff. from massive EU fund corruption to a member leaving. 2. on this last point, how ma
by kmlx 7y ago
1. the expansion is over. last expansion resulted in some pretty nasty stuff. from massive EU fund corruption to a member leaving.
2. on this last point, how many hundreds of albanias would you need to replace the particular qualities the brits were bringing to the table? the only thing the EU can do is bring Russia onboard. something France and Germany are already doing, to the horror of the Eastern Europeans and the US
- lispm 7y agoThe expansion is not over. There are still european countries wanting to join. Btw., the UK (especially Boris Johnson) was a proponent of more countries joining the EU. France never wanted the UK in the EU in the first place. Maybe they were right? The UK was boykotting deeper EU integration on political, economical and defense levels, so after the UK leaving we may expect to see some progress. Boykotting Russia everywhere leads us nowhere. Cooperation does. Russia is not even a candidate joining the EU. We have Turkey in the line of countries - which is not liked by many EU countries, but PROMOTED by the current UK prime minister. Even the US has requested in the past the EU to take Turkey as a member. The US foreign policy is the current horror. Last time the US lawlessly invaded Iraq with a coalition of the willing. Now the US has many more countries unwilling to follow the foreign policy adventures of the least qualified administration since decades. A country like Poland sees with horror, that the US is no longer clearly committed to NATO.
- kmlx 7y agothe UK was one of many countries objecting to the current form of the EU. this will not go away with one member leaving. the EU is expecting another round of new participants in 2025. and the countries are the likes of Macedonia and Serbia. of course the EU politicians are already arguing about this, since the last expansion was a small disaster: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.politico.eu/article/eu-enlargement-reform-pushback/amp/ https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.politico.eu/article/eu-en... personally i don't see how the EU can expand without major reform. countries like Poland and Romania are strong Nato allies looking in horror at Germany and France cozying up to Putin. the US simply expected the two western countries to pay up. they preferred to pay Russia instead.
- lispm 7y agoMajor EU reforms, which were blocked by the UK, for example. Good relations with Russia is in the interest of the EU countries.
- hopia 7y agoEurope has been trying to build good relations with Russia for as long as anyone can remember. But in the end it takes two to tango.
- lispm 7y agoMaybe you can‘t remember those times, but I knew germans who were invading the USSR. I spoke to one who learned russian in the USSR in military prisons in siberia - he having served in the Waffen SS. I grew up in the cold war times. Then we saw the collapse of the USSR and its block. We‘ve made a lot progress since then. There is a russian view to that and we also need to listen to that, too.
- hopia 7y agoWhat's the Russian view we need to listen to?
- lispm 7y agoIs that a real question? For example the views of the Russian population. Example : https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/08/21/russians-say-their-government-did-not-try-to-influence-u-s-presidential-election/ https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/08/21/russians-say-t... The view of Russia about the NATO expansion towards their border is widely reported. We can ignore that or think it is unfounded, the reality is that these views influence the Russian politics.
- hopia 7y agoRussia does not get to dictate which organizations free nations join or do not join.