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The EU has no sole purpose, but the most important one is harmonising the inner-European market. It did so by introducing Schengen roaming, for example, which a
by 9dev 1y ago
The EU has no sole purpose, but the most important one is harmonising the inner-European market. It did so by introducing Schengen roaming, for example, which allows me to relocate into any other EU country right now, buy a house and found a company, without any restrictions or visa necessary. I can buy goods from anywhere in the EU without tariffs or clearing. I enjoy natural parks and arts, all funded by the EU. If I go on vacation in one of the newer, poorer EU countries, I don’t drive through slums, because they received subsidies by the other members to raise their standard of living. I could go on for a while, but my point is: the EU has brought a lot of positive change and it’s certainly not just pushing a neoliberal agenda. Even if you ignore all of this, how do you think the individual member states would fare if they had to compete against the lunatic in the White House or China alone? If we didn’t band together, we’d be completely impotent against the bigger world powers.
- thrance 1y agoTo be fair, neoliberalism was imprecise. I believe the correct term is ordoliberalism[1]. Still, the EU has little interest in matters of sovereignty. I am simply trying to explain the otherwise baffling leniency toward very hostile actors like (current) America or China: because this goes directly against its core values, one of them being to always promote free trade. This is even stated as one of its "aim and value" in [2]. I am no Eurosceptic, I think we should just acknowledge and challenge the EU's current limitations if we want to move forward. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordoliberalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordoliberalism [2] https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/principles-and-values/aims-and-values_en https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-histor...