3 ms·

I think the EU is focusing mainly on the wrong things. Like the single market, making it easier for big business in the EU. But things that actually make lives

I think the EU is focusing mainly on the wrong things. Like the single market, making it easier for big business in the EU. But things that actually make lives better like standard welfare and healthcare are left to each country. Or a single-standard rail network that could really help reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Or standardised road rules and vehicle checks, taxes.. I've lived in 3 EU countries and it's a mess. There isn't a single anything for us normal people. I know it started as an economic block mainly intended to attract big business but now that it's a real union they're still focused on ticking off the business wishlist. It's a neoliberal's wet dream. But people with low opportunities like old people in Eastern Europe are worse off than in their communist times, and those are the ones that the populists like Orban are feeding off...

gghhzzgghhzz 4y ago
There's no power behind any of these ideas. Anything business related has the power of capital behind it, even the regulations and standards - some of the admittedly good - are the basic requirements of a taming a market to make it functional. Without a shared demos then there is no democratic mandate for them either. The massive tragedy of the EU is that they have spent 20 years or more dealing with the inbuilt contradictions of their single currency and self-imposed restrictions of their monetary policy. All of which has the effect of constraining public spending. When the 20 years could have been spent on a serious move to a green economy. It was culturally, socially and economically (having a tradition of social democracy which requires public spending) the place where this could have really taken off. Yet navel gazing, and now paying the geo-political price.