Welcome my european friends!

[thop]

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Here's to a good peaceful european future!

[az]

AZ

[RedRed]

G'day all!


The EU is just short of half a billion people now -

The largest economy in the world

The largest Trading bloc/organisation in the world.

Still no foreign minister to call (Nixon said he would not take it seriously until it was a 'state')

RedRed

[Ribbit]

Originally posted by RedRed
(Nixon said he would not take it seriously until it was a 'state')

I don't think anyone's bothered about what Nixon thinks of them these days.

[Duty]

Originally posted by RedRed

The largest economy in the world

The largest Trading bloc/organisation in the world.

RedRed

What about China? Its over a billion...

Jeff

[KvHagedorn]

And in 50 years its economy will likely become the biggest, too.

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Duty
What about China? Its over a billion...

Jeff

They aren't talking sheer population. They are talking total amount of commerce within the trade block. China is a single nation so they can't really be called a block. That and the combined economical power of the EU is far greater than China's.

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Jammrock
...That and the combined economical power of the EU is far greater than China's.

Not for long.
E'n at this moment I'm trying to figure out how to get some investments that are truly denominated in Yuan.
When it floats (and someday it must) Katie bar the door.
Chuck

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks for the welcome, even if it's a poisoned chalice.

As an economic bloc with open borders, I'm all for it. As for a tax-gobbling super-bureaucracy which interferes even with the size and shape of my cucumbers and with over 100,000 directives covering every walk of life, I'm dead against it.

I don't know how other new states have fared, but the entry here has been painful, so far, and continues to be so. For example, VAT has increased from 8 to 15% in a couple of years "because Brussels diktat insists on it". Only in yesterday's paper it announced that VAT is now being applied to a host of products heretofore exempt. This, of course, has an inflationary knock-on effect.

I'm not saying it will all be negative (see www.cypenv.org ), but it does hurt our budgets, especially when we live on a pension.

[UtwigMU]

The organic idea of united Europe has been arround for centuries (Charlemagne, Christendom,...) and I'm glad we're able to realize it again.

I hope that the idea of united Europe will bring forth economic success, social state and that it will inspire and protect our common heritage and cultural identity.

[Greebe]

Brain please don't freak us out with comments about your cucumber changing it's size and shape

Got a message from gbm today all happy about entering the EU

[The PIT]

Should fall apart eventually. Stuff Europe.

[Novdid]

Well you brits have always been on the sceptical side of it all.

But it doesn't matter anyways you have always been a side player in european matters and will most probably remain so forever.

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by Novdid
Well you brits have always been on the sceptical side of it all.

But it doesn't matter anyways you have always been a side player in european matters and will most probably remain so forever.

Well, when PMs are more interested in transatlantic than trans-Channel relations... Ooops! Sorry if this is starting to look Temp-Forum-ish.

[KvHagedorn]

The only interests British foreign policy has ever had in Europe was to keep it divided so that no one united power could come against her. (Which turned out to be "balance things perfectly enough so there can be an endless stalemated slaughter if there ever is a war," which of course there was in 1914. ) They haven't really had the power to do this since WW2 though.