MarkWill wrote:American here.
I sympathize with the sovereignty arguments a lot of Euroskeptics make (we cherish that very, very, dearly, as is known, here in the U.S.
), but from an outsider perspective, Europe is much stronger together than divided. I do recognize some of the bureaucratic problems with it (this web page helps clarify some things:
https://www.coe.int/en/web/about-us/do-not-get-confused), but the common market seems to me like a good thing (then again free trade doesn't seem to be popular these days despite overwhelming empirical evidence that points to the contrary).
What exactly is the crux of the anti-EU argument? They make the laws? Immigrants from Poland, Romania, etc.? If the latter is the case, does an EU comprising only western European states sound any better? I just want to be able to understand this all a bit more.
Swede here.
I agree that the european nations should cooperate, and if the EU was just a military defence alliance, non-aggression pact and a simple free trade agreement, I would support it. I could even stomach a common currency in the right circumstances (now isn't the right circumstances).
The problem, IMO, is that the EU does a lot more than that, and it's moving towards a United States of Europe. At best it's just a laughable but harmless farce, like when they try to create a "European identity" with flags, anthems and other plastic-patriotic nonsense, nevermind that the european peoples already
have a sense of common identity (otherwise the EU project would never have lifted from the ground to begin with). But at worst it's actually downright destructive, like the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the food waste and environmental destruction it causes.
The inherent problems with this bureaucratic meddling are compounded by the fact that many voters don't feel that they can actually influence what happens in EU-level politics. This is just simple math: the bigger the population, the less the invividual's vote matters. Furthermore, there is a lack of transparancy with treaties being negotiated in secrecy (e.g. TTIP;
this footage is very telling by the way) and even public documents being largely incomprehensible to anyone who isn't a bureaucrat, and since the media coverage of the issues is bare-bones at most, ordinary voters who don't have the leisure time to read about politics on the internet 24/7 simply have no ability to form a fully informed opinion before going to the voting booth.
This is a critique of the EU that is shared by various people from all over the political spectrum.
In addition to these concrete issues, there is also the fact that the EU is a project of prestige for the chattering classes, and whether or not you believe in the EU has become one of the shibboleths in the (western) european countries' version of the Culture War. So being anti-EU is often just a way to signal your general contempt for the urban, liberal establishment. (Don't get me wrong now, I despise those people too.)
Now, on the "refugee" issue, it really isn't the EU's fault. Sure, Brussels barks at member states to keep their borders wide open, but countries like Hungary have shown that you can actually get away with a lot if you have some backbone. And it isn't the EU that runs the welfare systems that give shit away for free...
Also note that when most people talk about "EU migrants" and "East Europeans" they are not actually complaining about poles, romanians, hungarians, etc. They are complaining about
gypsies.
My proposals for salvaging the EU:
1. Abolish the ECB.
2. Abolish the CAP.
3. Let member states have border controls and deport problematic "EU migrants".
4. If we are going to have a federation, write a constitution that strictly and clearly limits what the central government is allowed to do, which should be as little as possible, and make sure to not leave any loop holes.
5 Implement "semi-direct democracy" similar to the Swiss system on what little the central govt does legislate.
This will of course never happen, so I have to go to plan B: have countries drop out of the EU until it implodes, and then maybe build it anew from scratch.