Could retroactively mean Earth Union. Let the good ones like Korea and Japan also join.
EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
51–60 of 877 posts
Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#52Australia is also seeking a closer alliance with EU and Canada. The world is moving on to a post Us-hegemony era. All it took was Trump & Republicans
The world was already moving on from US hegemony. China is already a super power, other economies are growing, and the west in general (i.e. all the countries mentioned here) are a shrinking proportion of the world economy (and population, or military strength).
Not if we kick off WW3 as a last ditch attempt to hold on to the old order ;)
Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#53Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#54I'm proud to live in the EU because for all its faults we have one thing going for us, we seem to be the only large institution that countries still want to voluntarily join, and can voluntarily leave. In a world in which the other great powers revive the Monroe Doctrine or threaten their magnitude smaller neighbors with annexation we're not doing so badly. There is an inherent pettiness, weakness and fake strength i…
The UK left, Iceland just voted not to join.
The EU does not have a military to annex any neighbours with. Individual states do, but non are really great powers any more.
Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#55Yieppieeee!!!
Love you Canada!
:waves from Italy
Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no struggle, China has already won.
In what way has "China already won"?
> In what way has "China already won"?
The US has depleted their missile stockpile and can no longer defend anybody. Countries in the Middle East are moving away from the US and forming their own alliances. Taiwan knows that the US cannot do anything to help them. South Korea also knows. The US has weaponized the US Dollar, forcing countries out of the SWIFT system if they don't do what they are told. As a result, the CHIPS system has become the alternative. China understands better how the economy works, with the Belt and Road Initiative. The US government doesn't understand how the economy works, and is run by a bunch of complete m orons.
Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#57[flagged]
Why? For me as a European it is pretty clear we need to cooperate to not be swooped away by the other big powers.
Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#58I’m not sure this is a good thing for Canada.
The EU feels like an incomplete experiment. Not strong enough to actually be a single market. But still able to create additional annoying regulations on top of nation level ones.
The EU needs to be truly Federal to succeed economically. That might create uniform regulations with more uniform regulations and actually make Europe competitive.
Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#59The EU is running out of Europe. I thought Turkey or North Africa would be the next steps. Maybe Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
> I thought Turkey or North Africa would be the next steps. Maybe Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Not white enough for the EU. There is a lot of opposition to even Turkey, which is already in customs union, joining and talks are dead specifically because EU countries do not want immigration from Turkey.
Sure, but Turkey is also an authoritarian autocracy, which I think might be a bit of a problem for the EU.
Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no struggle, China has already won.
In what way has "China already won"?
I am not OP and obviously "winning" reduces too many dimensions into one. But I will say that from my recent two visits to the country that I was pretty astonished by the speed at which they are building things. Cars, Buildings, Tech Hubs, Factories. You blink twice and a new tech company plops up somewhere making high end drones or humanoid robots or CNC machines or innovative 3d printers. It feels like there is an absolute abundance of electrical and mechanical engineers in that country and funding to match.
I am not making any comments on the politics of it all, but I have not seen this anywhere else in the world - perhaps it exists but I am not aware of it.