6 ms·

> Europe has pursued its own protectionist economic policies for decades, neglected their military funding, and pursued energy policy that made them extremely r

> Europe has pursued its own protectionist economic policies for decades, neglected their military funding, and pursued energy policy that made them extremely reliant on known bad actor Russia Technically from the EU27 only Germany, Austria, Italy, Czechia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria are the ones actually dependent on Russian Gas (6 out of 27 nations). It's important to not generalize. Also most of the EU's protectionism is around making sure we have a Farming sector for food security and Food standards for Food Safety. I don't have any issue with being 'protected' from clorinated chicken. On military spending all EU countries spend at least half of the target 2% of GDP from Nato, only Luxembourg is below that. In comparison the US spends about 7% of GDP but let's not be naive that this is very much catalyzed by Military Industrial complex lobbying rather than some deep desire of preserving world order.

AlbertCory 4y ago
So you're waving "at least half" as some kind of virtual compliance? How does this sound: "Of our 12 year-olds tested, at least half are reading at grade level!" One percent of GDP is a lot. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293562/expenditure-on-military-defense-as-gdp-share-in-the-european-union-eu-27/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293562/expenditure-on-m...
TMWNN 4y ago
>On military spending all EU countries spend at least half of the target 2% of GDP from Nato, only Luxembourg is below that. I think this wins the Copium Award for the month.
_nalply 4y ago
> Technically from the EU27 only Germany, Austria, Italy, Czechia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria are the ones actually dependent on Russian Gas (6 out of 27 nations). It's important to not generalize. And Switzerland. Switzerland is not a member of the EU but is Europe, and its economy (and culture) is strongly interconnected with the EU.

AlbertCory 4y ago

So you're waving "at least half" as some kind of virtual compliance? How does this sound: "Of our 12 year-olds tested, at least half are reading at grade level!" One percent of GDP is a lot. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293562/expenditure-on-military-defense-as-gdp-share-in-the-european-union-eu-27/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293562/expenditure-on-m...

TMWNN 4y ago

>On military spending all EU countries spend at least half of the target 2% of GDP from Nato, only Luxembourg is below that. I think this wins the Copium Award for the month.

_nalply 4y ago

> Technically from the EU27 only Germany, Austria, Italy, Czechia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria are the ones actually dependent on Russian Gas (6 out of 27 nations). It's important to not generalize. And Switzerland. Switzerland is not a member of the EU but is Europe, and its economy (and culture) is strongly interconnected with the EU.