11–18 of 18 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting! I hadn't heard that. Though I'm cynical enough to doubt if they would follow through – talk is cheap now, as they're not in much danger of Boris Johnson giving Scotland another indyref.
If recent British PM history is any indication, Johnson won't hold the position for too long.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It takes a unanimous vote to admit or expel a country (minus one in the case of expelling), IIUC. The EU couldn't kick Hungary out because Poland wouldn't support it. It's the same reason a theoretical independent Scotland wouldn't be admitted – there's no way that Spain would want precedent set that a country can split off and then rejoin the EU.
That has been a common and reasonable understanding of Spain's veto potential for a while; that said, their foreign minister has indicated otherwise: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/02/spain-drops...
He is not minister since 2018, so this wouldn't apply today necessarily. Many things had changed since that, starting by the party in the goverment.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the more corrupt and undemocratic the European Union gets, the more constrained the remaining democratic members are from acting on it? Who came up with that structure?
> Who came up with that structure? Inherent complexity. You see, it's hard to know in advance all consequences of today's decisions. A person or a political body may have all good intentions, yet with time passing, rules which seems unambiguous and good suddenly are viewed in another light. Many rules can be applied technically correctly, but contrary to the ideas there were when the rules were created. Sometimes the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It takes a unanimous vote to admit or expel a country (minus one in the case of expelling), IIUC. The EU couldn't kick Hungary out because Poland wouldn't support it. It's the same reason a theoretical independent Scotland wouldn't be admitted – there's no way that Spain would want precedent set that a country can split off and then rejoin the EU.
So the more corrupt and undemocratic the European Union gets, the more constrained the remaining democratic members are from acting on it? Who came up with that structure?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Who came up with that structure? Inherent complexity. You see, it's hard to know in advance all consequences of today's decisions. A person or a political body may have all good intentions, yet with time passing, rules which seems unambiguous and good suddenly are viewed in another light. Many rules can be applied technically correctly, but contrary to the ideas there were when the rules were created. Sometimes the…
Considering Spain was not a democracy until 1975 and the first EU parliament election was in 1979, I'd say the possibility of an undemocratic state in Europe was not unforeseeable at the time of its formation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Who came up with that structure? Inherent complexity. You see, it's hard to know in advance all consequences of today's decisions. A person or a political body may have all good intentions, yet with time passing, rules which seems unambiguous and good suddenly are viewed in another light. Many rules can be applied technically correctly, but contrary to the ideas there were when the rules were created. Sometimes the…
Considering Spain was not a democracy until 1975 and the first EU parliament election was in 1979, I'd say the possibility of an undemocratic state in Europe was not unforeseeable at the time of its formation.
History of Spain reports more than fifty general elections before this date, starting at 1810. Is a fact well documented and impossible to ignore, unless you want to rewrite the history of the country in the last 200 years for some reason. The universal concept of democracy, of course, has changed with time but this was not exclusive from Spain.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Elecciones_en_Espa%C3%B1...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Considering Spain was not a democracy until 1975 and the first EU parliament election was in 1979, I'd say the possibility of an undemocratic state in Europe was not unforeseeable at the time of its formation.
> Considering Spain was not a democracy until 1975 History of Spain reports more than fifty general elections before this date, starting at 1810. Is a fact well documented and impossible to ignore, unless you want to rewrite the history of the country in the last 200 years for some reason. The universal concept of democracy, of course, has changed with time but this was not exclusive from Spain. https://es.wikipedia.…
During the 1800s most of europe was under some form of monarchy or dictatorial rule. Its not a relevant timeframe for this discussion.
Expel them from the EU and NATO. Europe must take a hardline on this or other countries will follow Poland and Hungry's path.
It takes a unanimous vote to admit or expel a country (minus one in the case of expelling), IIUC. The EU couldn't kick Hungary out because Poland wouldn't support it. It's the same reason a theoretical independent Scotland wouldn't be admitted – there's no way that Spain would want precedent set that a country can split off and then rejoin the EU.