Here is a list of countries that deserve to fail because they have passed the occasional bad law.
"They’. Who are “they”? The national governments who voted for that stupid law in the Council vote?
It’s fun how the anti-EU-folks always want all power to stay at the national level, and are always hoping for the whole thing to “fail” and all power to revert to the national level, and then they turn around and complain that the EU did not act on things that are explicitly the domain of the nation states. Kind of contradictory.
It’s partly their fault, but the copyright directive was formulated by officials not directly elected by population. The whole process was shady (things like changing numbers of articles to confuse protesters, etc.), and that shadiness is a systemic problem in EU.
I was pro-EU until mentioned law was introduced, but with the recent crisis it really seem that EU is mostly good at using its power to cater to special interest groups and do petty things like trying to force member states to rise women retirement age or implement brutal austerity measures, and not for dealing with crisis.
They could for example offer centralized purchase and distribution of personal protective equipment to member states. EU as a whole would have way greater bargaining power than individual states.
You’re right about this, it would probably be the same in Poland, but of the two bad outcomes I prefer having internet as it is now even if that means way lower standard of living. Reforming EU legislative process would be the best option, but I don’t have much hope for that.
Hope not, but the last serious war in my region ended in 1945 (there were nasty events after that but nothing even remotely comparable), and Poland joined EU only in 2004, so there’s lots of time in between.
US federal government at least can be voted out more easily. With current emergency response (like confiscating PPE purchased by individual states and later forcing states to bid on it) it seems to be doing more harm than good, but there’s hope it will still be corrected after elections. On the other hand if US federal government introduced mandatory internet censorship like the one that will be implemented in EU soon, that would be a different matter.
But it was founded in the ‘70s and covered the major antagonists from WWII right when the functional occupation of Western Europe by the USA was phasing out. One could also argue that the EU as currently membered and structured would have prevented or greatly reduced the Balkan wars in the ‘90s.
One could also argue that, to the extent there was a pan-European authority then, they made it worse, by imposing an arms embargo that prevented the Bosnians from getting weapons to defend themselves.
The EU did play a significant role in getting the Brits to accept the Good Friday Agreement, though.
More guns is rarely a path to less violence. With Croatia a member of the EU and almost all of the countries surrounding Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia members of the EU, there would be more support to stifle the violence early and more pressure from the whole of the EU to tamp that shit down fast.
Looking at Victor Orbán, the thought occurred to me that Donald Trump being an ineffectual bumblefuck might actually be a blessing in disguise. Orbán brings to the inclination to erect a fascist system the actual capacity to do it effectively.
As another Finn, I too really don’t want the EU to fail. It would only weaken Europe, help known bad actors like Russia (who are right next to us), and embolden various nasty nationalist groups. It would also cause hell of a lot of economic disruption – imagine Brexit all over the place.
I’m actually one who believes that the good sides of the EU do outweigh its problems, at least for the moment - and I can’t find any particular fault in its Corona response, either, as public health is per its statutes largely in the hands of the member states.
However, to dismiss any criticism with over-the-top horror scenarios like you are doing here, has to be considered both dishonest and disingenuous.
Historically, the EU grew out of a system of trade agreements rather than out of a democratic process, and it has never been able to shake its bias towards big business. It suffers from a distinct lack of democratic legitimacy, in particular, a parliament of limited power, that isn’t even consulted for some of the laws and regulations enacted by its executive branch. This means that whenever the national government’s delegates in the Council come together to agree on something related to economy or defense, they can enact it without parliamentary consultation, and it becomes law in the member states.
I absolutely don’t agree the EU should fail, because the current failure mode would be Orbán, but I see a serious possibility that it will fail, mainly because it has now for decades failed to gain a viable public support, and the reforms it has done, like the (hilariously named) Treaty of Nice, are far too hesitant and marred by business lobbyism.
Until the copyright directive was introduced, that was my opinion too, but if the small online communities focusing on art and/or open source software will disappear, I don’t think I will be able to find joy in my life again. The best outcome would be if current events force EU to deal with the problems you mentioned and become more democratic in the process, but I don’t think it’ll happen. Rebuilding EU from the ground up could work, but I’m not sure if there will be political will to do that.
“It’s not like it used to be,” he lamented, “when you could have an opinion, talk about it and then sit down and have a beer together and talk about football.”
You still can, you just can’t demand a taxpayer-funded salary while doing it.
Well, I guess you’d also need friends willing to talk with you, so maybe not, actually.
