There is this saying ‘people are not islands’ to mean people are interconnected with each other. The literal sense being applied by the last decade and by extension the last semicentennial is weird. The EU is a federation and any country can leave, but I still think Brexit was a mistake.
Part of Schengen, part of the European Free Trade Association, signed a lot of bilateral treaties and enacted a lot of EU legislation, contributed to EU projects.
The Swiss electorate voted against becoming part of the EU, but the EU's a huge market so Switzerland is quite integrated with the EU while still being independent.
Norway isn't part of the EU either, but they're in a similar position as Switzerland, which is probably why they're also part of this proposal.
Switzerland is also a lot more integrated than GB. Remember when we discussed hard vs. soft brexit? Soft Brexit would have left GB in a similar state like Switzerland and Norway. But we got a hard brexit.
Nonsense. We should swap it with Scotland, since both are beautiful mountainous countries with reasonably similar land areas and population, but on the whole Scots want to be in the EU and Switzerlanders don't
Switzerland participates in Schengen and the european free trade association while not being an EU member state. The UK doesn't do any of those things.
I think people in this comment section seem to think people who voted to leave the EU are shaking their fists in rage, why would they be? The diagram also looks sus in terms of legality
I found the proposal - I thought the lines to Ireland were all proposed rail (despite encroaching the incorrect distance by sea) but its a rough diagram and those are water transport routes.
Looms fine to me though, there’s a path into Norway, and there’s a path into the UK.
I get it, and lol or whatever, but Ireland is getting two ferries(?) from entirety of the mainland, and the UK is still connected via the tunnel which looks to be a major link-hub for the new system. I guess if it weren’t for Brexit there might have been an Edinburgh-Amsterdam or -Brussels link, but it’s not like Aberdeen or New Castle was going to get any love.
I believe we have two ferries going from east Scotland to Amsterdam and Bruges (or somewhere nearby) starting shortly. We also have Fred Olsen cruises from Scottish ports now too.
Not defending brexit before I get pitchforked but we aren’t exactly cut off…
As a heathen Yank, I don’t have an actual stake in the whole thing. However, I can’t escape the following, as my considered opinion:
EU Proponent: “Hey, you know how it’s really easy to govern, fund, and defend nations and empires?”
Skeptical European: “Ummm…are you joking?”
EU Proponent: “Well, some of us were thinking.: what if we carve out a nebulous, constantly shifting middle-ground between a single nation, a group of nations, and an empire. Ya know, some kind of cobbled-together, mutated entity, possessing some characteristics of all those things, but never truly being any of them. That might be EVEN EASIER to manage.”
EU Proponent: “We figure the most important aspect would be a constant vagueness, regarding the enforcement of laws, standards, and regulations that all the nations in the semi-pseudo-super-nation group would have to follow.”
Skeptical European: “Come again?”
EU Proponent: “Well, it’s simple: maybe all the countries in the quasi-ultra-state would be bound to obey laws passed by the mega-parliament. But also, maybe they would still be sovereign states, and they wouldn’t have to obey those laws. But, then again, maybe they ARE supposed to obey them, technically, but there isn’t an effective method of enforcement. If everyone has to keep guessing, that will make sure everyone pays attention, and everything will go really smoothly.”
Skeptical European: “Ohhhhhkay. But we’ll still bully the shit out of Greece if they have financial problems, right?”
EU Proponent: “Oh, fuck yes. That’s 90 percent of why we’re even doing this.”
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