I'd say that there are no benefits for France and Germany. They are paying for the whole party and their populations get fleeced.
Please restore the old economic union with the core countries. Iceland can join, too.
Please restore the old economic union with the core countries. Iceland can join, too.
Peace, friendship, shared values, culture, diversity, stability, ...
We have a lot of benefits.
Why would we celebrate the EU's efforts to homogenise our national cultures?
I preferred the EU when it was a trading union as opposed to a utopian political experiment.
We still have or national identity. I live in Hamburg/Germany. Our identity is largely European since hundreds of years (see for example our history in the Hanse), before the German nation existed. We have a strong Regional and European identity.
> Why would we celebrate the EU's efforts to homogenise our national cultures?
The EU doesn't do that. In many ways it actually preserves local (and also regional) cultures. It sets a framework for democracy and law in Europe.
> I preferred the EU when it was a trading union as opposed to a utopian political experiment.
A trading union doesn't influence culture and politics?
The EU was never thought as just a trading union. It was set up as a process to get a peaceful Union for the European Countries after hundreds of years of wars. After the WWII which made clear that lasting peace can be achieved by deep cooperation.
That really conflicts with the "Freedom of movement for workers".
Cultures can not be preserved if people freely move between regions.
Now EU citizens can do it peacefully.
Freedom of movement in the EU also does not mean "people can move freely in Europe". It's a right for EU citizens. Not for all people. It's also for people who can actually afford to live at a new place.
Preserving a cultural heritage does not mean regions are suddenly cultural museums. Cultural regions also are not by single nations, they span across several nations or nations have several cultural regions.
For example in Germany there wasn't a 'Nation' for much of the history. Much of the culture came out of changing regions. Visit Munich, Aachen, Lübeck, Danzig (not even a part of Germany today) and look at their history. Different. Look at their cultural history: different. They are now living in a FEDERAL republic of states (Danzig is even in Poland, now). A Bundesrepublik of Bundesländer. This FEDERAL republic is also a member of the EU. People from German regions can move freely in the German states. They also can move freely in the EU.
Cultures in Europe developed and mixed since the beginning of human settlement on this continent. Now it still happens, peacefully.
I live in Northern Germany. There was an intense cultural exchange for hundreds of years, spanning several regions. Do you think that this is suddenly not a part of my cultural heritage?
Don't you think that modern transportation, modern communication, change things? Don't you think we need to find answers to changes? That we cope with changes? This platform here is international in English, from the US, spreading innovations and discussions about it. Don't you think that this has effects? Deep cultural effects??? Freedom of Movement in the EU is one of the answers to these changes we see.
If the Axis powers had won the war all the countries of Europe would have had even deeper "cooperation"
Cooperation is fine when everyone retains agency. It's the people who want us all to cooperate -under their system- that worry me.
There you've placed a link from Fascism and "National Socialism" to the EU.
Nice try.