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EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

bbc.com

231–240 of 878 posts

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#231
post #75

No idea what this actually means, if it means easier trade, I'm all for anything that reduces our dependency on the yanks, as long as we don't need to be involved in their regulatory or legal regimes. The Americans are no longer our friends, Salut, mes amis Européens. :)

A lot of replies confidently explaining ‘what this actually means’ in some detail despite the article saying things like:

> [Canada would be] EU's first "associate member"

> …

> [Von der Leyen] did not give specific details on how any Canadian membership would work, but listed manufacturing, technology, AI, defence, energy, critical minerals and economic security as key areas for cooperation.

> …

> But "associate membership" of the EU does not currently exist and the process, if agreed, could take years.

>

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#233

Good, if the middle power democracies don't align/work together they are going to get torn apart in the struggle between the US and China.

Errrrr...... this has nothing to do with the struggle between USA and China. It is 100% about Trump.

Trump is absolutely a malicious imbecile, but the US is a country that willingly voted him in twice.

Removing Trump doesn't remove fundamental issues with the US

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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UK does not pay. The EU is likely to develop a military at some point and has some defence cooperation. if you do not trust the US, that means you cannot rely on NATO, which means you need some alternative. > Right now it seems to me that e. g. Carney, and Leyen, use this more as promo-tour. I agree. It might be meant as a threat to influence US policy.

That could be a european Nato though, doesn't mean you need literally one EU army

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#235
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polish export to US is about 3% of its total export and import - about 5% of Poland's total import. Not much to lose, honestly. We trade more with Czech Republic. Polish export to EU is 74% of its total export and import is about 60% of its total import. Economically - whatever's good for EU is good for Poland and US barely matters.

What about the importance of that trade. The US exports a lot of critical things that cannot be supplied from elsewhere. Everyone is heavily reliant on American technology.

Like what specifically? Only services come to mind. Any hardware is produced in Asia, in fabs that use equipment from Netherlands.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#236

I’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.

Consider: the US is a (somewhat) greenfield project, while the EU is a brownfield refactoring. These sorts of refactorings take time, even more so if done by "committee". The good thing is that explicit interfaces have to be created thereby (hopefully) increasing adaptability and resilience over time.

The US was greenfield 2 centuries ago. It currently has a lot more technical (political?) debt than the EU. Some reforms are long overdue.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no struggle, China has already won.

Go do some research on China - it's economy is in the toilet and its leadership has destroyed much of it's success, foreign capital and companies have fled to India, Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia. Your lament of "Oh no China is the best in the world and only getting better!!!" is long long out of date.

With 2 billion people you’re absolute power. Internal market with middle class size of whole United States. No need for wallstreet and American style financial engineering. Producer of 80% goods for Europe. I mean buying something mainstream not made in China is barely possible. Technically there are some challenges like plane engines or lithography. But they’ll nail it. Trust me.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#238

I’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.

"But still able to create additional annoying regulations on top of nation level ones."

It seems to me the EU is overburdened with trivial regulations (like regulating the maximum power consumption of domestic vacuum cleaners) rather than prioritizing core issues of its single market, manufacturing, trade, etc.

Trouble is small vested interests hold overly powerful sway over EU-wide policy. The example above is a case in point, individual member states should be able to set their own regulations independently if deemed warranted.

You're correct, annoying regulations are bloating the EU bureaucracy making it lethargic and uncompetitive.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#239
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carney was asking for freedom of movement of goods, people and services, but without full monetary and legislative integration. So, easier to sell stuff, easier to buy stuff, free to just travel to/from Canada/EU and work there with no extra paperwork, free to buy and sell service from Canada to EU and vice versa. No Euro, no vote in EU, no ECJ, no payments into each others budget. Tighter integration than UK, not as…

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Israel's public broadcaster is a long time member of the European Broadcasting Union, which has nothing to do with EU, and honestly not all that much to do with Europe either. EBU organizes Eurovision. Why Israel's public broadcaster wanted to be part of EBU I don't know, cultural identification with Europe I guess? You'd have to ask them.

But either way that's not the scandal. The scandal is that Russia's broadcaster got kicked out for Russia doing bad things (fair enough) but Israel's was kept in despite their government doing even worse things.

Re: EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

#240
post #106
post #75

No idea what this actually means, if it means easier trade, I'm all for anything that reduces our dependency on the yanks, as long as we don't need to be involved in their regulatory or legal regimes. The Americans are no longer our friends, Salut, mes amis Européens. :)

Carney was asking for freedom of movement of goods, people and services, but without full monetary and legislative integration. So, easier to sell stuff, easier to buy stuff, free to just travel to/from Canada/EU and work there with no extra paperwork, free to buy and sell service from Canada to EU and vice versa. No Euro, no vote in EU, no ECJ, no payments into each others budget. Tighter integration than UK, not as…

I'm curious how an integration into Schengen Area could actually work... Or does it just mean no passport controls?

Also, to be able to sell stuff, you gotta comply with the CE rules one way or another, there is no free card here.

About competition in Eurovision: absolutely, would love for them to participate, even if just as guest state :D

LMAO just googled it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_in_the_Eurovision_Song_...

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