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Post by Ribaric on Aug 21, 2015 21:14:33 GMT 1
Does anyone know if HR made the application to the EU to join Schengen as we were deadlined to do by July this year?
maybe I missed it?
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Post by kesterj on Aug 22, 2015 10:06:16 GMT 1
Does anyone know if HR made the application to the EU to join Schengen as we were deadlined to do by July this year? maybe I missed it? Ribs - I thought Croatia was down to join Schengen on July 1, 2015. But if it did, I certainly missed it. And if you are correct, well, I missed that too  kesterj |
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Post by Ribaric on Aug 22, 2015 10:58:51 GMT 1
Ribs - I thought Croatia was down to join Schengen on July 1, 2015. But if it did, I certainly missed it. And if you are correct, well, I missed that too kesterj I guess that's another squillion Euros not coming due to the fines for not getting the borders up to EU standards. |
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Post by quest on Aug 22, 2015 18:56:33 GMT 1
We shouldn't ever join Shengen.
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Post by quest on Aug 22, 2015 18:58:43 GMT 1
But, to answer the question, the best (or worst) case scenario is a year and a half after applying which happened last month.
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Post by Ribaric on Aug 23, 2015 7:59:09 GMT 1
We shouldn't ever join Shengen. Got no choice, it was part of the deal for HR to join up. |
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Post by quest on Aug 23, 2015 14:52:51 GMT 1
We can still try to piss off Slovenia so they block us from joining  |
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Post by quest on Aug 23, 2015 14:54:13 GMT 1
Send the army to Sveta Gera  |
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Post by brianmcc on Aug 23, 2015 19:48:40 GMT 1
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Post by Carol on Aug 24, 2015 16:27:29 GMT 1
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Post by Ribaric on Aug 24, 2015 19:15:02 GMT 1
Thanks Carol. I'm a supporter of the US of E in principle but I'm not at all sure it'll ever happen. |
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Post by Carol on Aug 24, 2015 20:28:43 GMT 1
I'm not. Trading zone - yes, absolutely. But full political and economic union -no.
Reasons:-
1. The region is too diverse both economically and culturally, so there would be winners (richer countries) and perpetual losers (southern europe)
2. The system is too open to abuse i.e. little or no public accountability so democracy is at risk
How about you? Why is it a yes?
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Post by quest on Aug 25, 2015 0:17:27 GMT 1
The EU has many similarities with the former Yugoslavia after Tito's death, i.e. relying on mutual trust and backroom lobbying between the republics to get any decision done. But when the economy crumbled Serbia started taking money from the Yugoslav central bank in Belgrade to pay for Serbian salaries and there was nothing other republics could do about it. If you want a European state you need an authority for the case where someone misbehaves that Yugoslavia didn't have, which means an EU police and army.
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Post by Ribaric on Aug 25, 2015 10:08:51 GMT 1
I have not thought this through to the nth degree but, in principle and having lived there, I regard the model of the USA as being about right. There are States and local governments but everyone regards themselves as American. You can travel anywhere and be governed by the same federal laws, no borders, there's a huge internal market without inter-state restrictions. It is one country. The USA has many problems but I see these as being in spite of their unity, not because of it. I do accept that a USE is probably a bridge too far and would need a federal government and security apparatus but I don't see that as a negative thing. Without it, we will remain a group of disparate fiefdoms constantly squabbling over everything. It is possibly true that the USA fears a fully cohesive USE, with good reason, and actively works to prevent it coming about, reason enough to do it in my book.
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Post by Carol on Aug 25, 2015 18:03:14 GMT 1
Ok... but think about how USA was formed. It took a civil war.
It was a series of independent, loosely connected states, when Abraham Lincoln (and the northern states generally) decided that they wanted more power centred on Washington. The southern states disagreed: they wanted to remain a confederation of states, but no more.
The unionist states continued to push for more centralist power, so the southern states opted to seceed from the union. At that point a full-scale civil war broke out.
When the South lost, it was well and truly subjugated and its never been able to recover economically, because interest rate policy and political decision making favoured the north.
There are a lot of parallels between the USA and the euro debacle, except, thank God, the Southern European states haven't gone to war with the Northern European states and been subjugated by superior physical force. However, if you look at what's happened in Greece lately, you might ask if the Greeks have not been subjugated by other means?
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