Can Europe Survive the 21st Century Without Uniting? (tradition, evolve)

[Djamila]

Europe is economically united as it is. All of this cherade is just to make everything official and achieve less honorable objectives.

If Germany's economy collapsed tomorrow, the rest of Europe would follow. If Russia's oil pipelines dried up, Western Europe would collapse in a few weeks.

We're already connected. These reforms and all that are just ways of... well... taking over. Sometimes its good - for example, in Bosnia, where EU reforms are the only things keeping Serbian nationalists in check. They're a good thing in, for example, Macedonia - which is developing wonderfully - and developing WELL with GREAT respect between Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Roman Catholics in that country.

Then it's also a bad thing for others, for example in Slovenia, where joining the EU has actually harmed its economy by making trade with the rest of the former Yugoslavia more difficult and expensive.

[Ody]

Originally Posted by niceguy

The Roman Empire was a very stable empire. The last remnants of it wast gone until 1461!

Even so for a long time it had no other concept of rule other than by generals, which lead to a great deal of reckless military spending and constant coup de etats.

[hartlandcat]

Originally Posted by c0da

I think British culture and the British people are too different and seperate from mainland Europe, rendering Britain incompatible with a EU Super State.

What sort of 'culture' are we talking about? Try telling a Spanish person that German culture and Dutch culture are more similar to Spanish culture than to British culture and you will be laughed at.

It's only in Britain where it is ever suggested that the countries of Mainland Europe are 'culturally' all more similar to each-other than any of them are to Britain. Southern Europeans group Britain (and Ireland) very much with the other North-Western European countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. I know this because I have spent what feels like most of this year discussing these sorts of issues with Southern Europeans, and their perception of how Britain fits 'culturally' with the rest of Europe seems very clear. Equally, my experiences in France and Germany and learning both French and German have led me to conclude that the Germans are actually more similar to the British than to the French on the whole.