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Comment by mutatio | Hacker News Reader

The currency is a hard no, even from hardent remainer quarters. The Euro and the ECB haven't even been a success for the EU as-is, a single fiscal policy cannot reconcile the economies of Germany and Greece. The hubris of the UK submitting to the Euro isn't pragmatic or in the realms of reality. Participation from the UK hardly changes things also, making it come across almost vindictive.

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> The Euro and the ECB haven't even been a success for the EU as-is, a single fiscal policy cannot reconcile the economies of Germany and Greece.

Of course it has been a success. I (half-German, half-Croatian) grew up in times where each of the borders from Germany to Croatia had anything from 1-4 hours of waiting time, you'd need to exchange currency at each border (at outrageous rates) as well simply to be able to pay for fuel and food, and heaven forbid you even got a call on your phone due to roaming charges.

Nowadays? No border controls at least on the way to Croatia any more (the other way around does because of certain far-right politicians), no currency exchanges, no leftover currency when you go back, seamless cross-border bank transfers, no phone roaming surprise bills... it's utterly awesome.

To play devil’s advocate, a lot of that is now ameliorated by the decline of cash and the rise of certain neobanks. I’m in Denmark at the moment, and thanks to my banks (N26, Revolut), I can cheaply convert my savings (EUR) and spend in the local currency (DKK); either at transaction time (N26 and Revolut), or ahead of time (Revolut) all with minimal fees.

Yes and the Neobanks, both N26 and Revolute rely on fact that financial regulators across the block recognise each other, so N26 regulated in Germany can operate in Ireland. Etc.

Sure, but that doesn’t necessarily require a single currency.

For what it’s worth, I’m in favour of the euro (and further EU integration).

What year was this? The removal of a lot of this financial friction was coming to and end regardless of the Euro or ECB. Didn't Croatia only join the Euro this year? I'm finding it hard to believe this archaic mechanism existed up until Jan 2023, that is to say I find the example slightly disingenuous.

The friction between Ireland and the UK is near zero, both have different currencies.

This isn't to say there aren't benefits to the Euro; on an individual level of course not thinking about exchanging or exchange rates makes life easy. It's simply not palatable to the UK, Brits or the core financial institutions by which its service oriented economy excels.

> What year was this? The removal of a lot of this financial friction was coming to and end regardless of the Euro or ECB. Didn't Croatia only join the Euro this year? I'm finding it hard to believe this archaic mechanism existed up until Jan 2023, that is to say I find the example slightly disingenuous.

Indeed, Schengen and Euro were only introduced this year - but I lived through how all of the old crap slowly got dismantled, each year it was one annoyance less.

The most painful thing is to see how many people want to dismantle all of that progress.

Everything except the money changing on your list could be achieved without the Euro.

I was a remainer and I'd love to rejoin and Schengen, the mobile roaming stuff, etc. are all wonderful and I would like them back.

I'm not convinced the Euro would be a good idea and I'm absolutely convinced that you'd lose public support for rejoining if you tried to go that route.

I keep wondering if EEA + Schengen would be a viable middle ground.

No borders on the continent is useful, but not sure what it has to do with currency.

Nowadays when I travel, I just pay with my usual bank or credit card and get good rates without thinking about it. If my bank didn't have good rates, there's Revolut.

The main pain is that the EU hasn't standardised payment systems. So in parts of NL and Germany, you might find your Visa isn't accepted because they only take Maestro, or, in Sweden, Swish, for example.

The only country which benefited from the Euro is Germany and they had the audacity to not only refuse the fiscal policies and transfers which might have made that fair but actually undermine the most affected countries like Greece even more. I personally lost all hope for the union after the debt crisis and considering the state of politics and denial of reality in the north of Europe, I really wish we would just leave too. I’m sad we lost the open border with the UK however, genuinely love the country but I’m not sure the rest of the EU is worth it.

I found Conrad Bastable‘s essay [1] on the subject fascinating.

[1] https://www.conradbastable.com/essays/the-germany-shock-the-...

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