@Walter Hinteler,
Walter Hinteler wrote:
I don't know how you got that. But might be, that you don't understand it? A "framework of an organisation open to the participation of the other countries of Europe" doesn't really mean a 'unified Europe' in my opinion.
I agree with that, and with Walter's earlier description of the origins of the EU and in particular the evident motivations of its founders. However, I think the current issues surround some unanticiparted side effects and some elements of the evolution of the EU that may not have been either planned or anticipated by them.
The EU, as Walter noted grew out of a desire to harmonize basic heavy iundustry in an area along the much dispited borders of France and Germany to facilitate the emergence of Western Europe from the ravges of a major war, and possibly prevent some of the factors that had contributed to previous conflicts. There is ample evidence of the desire of many of the proponents of this necessary action to create some kind of Pan European union that would prevent the conflicts that caused so much destruction there since 1870, and beyond.
The fact is they succeeded. In the nearly 70 years that have passed since then Europe has recovered from the devastation of war and the hostilities that had pervaded the previous century. The former satellites of the Soviet Empire in eastern Europe have found their freedom and increasing prosperity in a union with the nationa of Western Europe,
We live in a complex and ever-changing world. Nations, alliances, the social and political values of people and economic activity are constantly changing and rearranging themselves. Very little endures. We can see evidence of this from Russia to China South Asia and here in the United States.
I believe the BREXIT and the European issues that attend it and the disquiet with the EU that can be seen in Italy, France and other EU countries should be viewed in that context. My opinion is that the EU needs to finally resolve the amiguous questions of sovereignty that it has evaded in an otherwise very successful expansion across the whole of Europe. In addition it should (in my view) find a way to restrain the growth of a highly bureaucratic state in Brussels that is largely neyonfd the reach of democratic accountability. I also believe that, despite these issues, the EU has achieved, by all historical standards, a very remarkable success, and I hope that it continues. To achive that it appears that some corrections aree needed.
