Would you be on board with THIS European Union? (Poll)

Strumms · 21-12-2021 4:22am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118354717#Comment_118354717

You can have an alliance without admitting them to the EU… look at NATO. turkey are there.

fritzelly · 21-12-2021 5:12am

How could anyone let the nutcase leader of Turkey in to the EU - I think with a Western looking leader in charge it wouldn't be that bad but by god at this moment?

The other African countries WTF?

I'm sure there is some historian who can make arguments for parallels about what is happening or what is being proposed - history does have a tendency to repeat itself

Podge_irl · 21-12-2021 9:06am

The entire point of this thread appears to be to make up a completely implausible scenario and then complain about it despite the fact it is never going to happen.

21-12-2021 1:50pm

No

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118354717#Comment_118354717

Because the OP phrased this along the lines of the EU. A European union. Not NATO or some other kind of alliance.

European. Those countries are not European, and shouldn't be allowed to join. There are heaps of benefits to a strict adherence to a solely European construct.

21-12-2021 1:51pm

No

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118354893#Comment_118354893

We come here (boards) to discuss ideas, and express our opinions. If you're not interested, why bother posting to the thread?

Heraclius · 21-12-2021 2:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118354714#Comment_118354714

Fench Guyana in South America is already in the EU and Cyprus is farther east than a good deal of Turkey.

Ten of Swords · 21-12-2021 2:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118351344#Comment_118351344

I can add one, it'll mean modifying the thread a bit (nobody's posts, or more importantly thanks, will be lost - I think 🙄)

it's not as straightforward as it was on the old site.

PM me the poll options you want

Heraclius · 21-12-2021 2:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118354893#Comment_118354893

Yeah, I suspect it is just an attempt to attack either the EU or certain countries perhaps.

seenitall · 21-12-2021 3:00pm

No one is going to be on board of that kind of change, well not most of the EU anyway. The Dutch, the Danish, even the French are extremely expansion-averse as regards the east, the Dutch at the moment have a problem with admitting an EU country (Croatia) into Schengen, let alone admitting any other countries into the union, even the candidates of long standing, with their “chapters”, forget it.

Any expansion is not going to happen for a long time, but I can foresee the alliances such as V4 and Med9 gaining more prominence within the EU, and France certainly wants to push closer ties with North Africa, however no one else is enamoured with that either. Germany on the other hand will now push for an ever closer union (toward federalisation), I think that might prove a very tricky ambition for them!

I think the EU is slowly devolving and changing, there are now too many interests pulling in all different directions and too many cooks, as we know, spoil the broth. Interesting times ahead, and you don’t even need to evoke North Africa into this story to make them so.

Capt'n Midnight · 21-12-2021 3:03pm

The EFTA countries get most of the benefits of EU membership right now so they know exactly what they are doing.

Monaco, San Marino, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, Vatican, UK areas on Cyprus, all follow EU customs rules.

Andorra and Turkey are in the customs union for non-agricultural products.

UK is the outlier by it's own choice.

Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey are candidate countries. , Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo would be next in line.

Scotland would be a shoe-in for EFTA membership where they'd get most of EU benefits they could later converge to EU membership but almost certainly the UK's historical opt-outs would be grandfathered in. For example we are in the CTA which is a mini-Schengen and Sweden consistently missed the criteria for adopting the Euro for longer than the Euro has existed.

That's enough to be going on with for now.

seenitall · 21-12-2021 3:32pm

B-H is in a heap of internal political trouble at the moment, each of the three nations involved are pulling politics in a different direction, we are a long time from Dayton and the ghosts of the ‘90s have arisen again. Dayton seems to be seen as a political football and an optional element more than anything these days, the levers of power-sharing are seriously messed up now. It’s dangerous stuff and I don’t see B-H getting into EU as it is. (Although, ironically, that would be the best place for it as the numbers of its inhabitants are small enough and the first place a good amount of young people would end up in is on the building sites and in the hospitality establishments of Germany or Ireland. No young people = no one to fight nationalistic wars over territory with their ‘90s era shrapnels and stuff. Also, some places and politics are getting very islamised these days, so one more reason to admit it into EU and defuse things. However, with the way the European politics are going atm, there are also reasons not to, and I don’t think it will happen.)

Kosovo is also problematic, unfortunately things there haven’t completely played out yet. I can’t see them getting into EU either.

It’s not realistic to expect that expansion. The EU is becoming more inward-looking. Enough to be dealing with, exactly (and sadly).

21-12-2021 3:41pm

Its a bit of a theoretical exam-like moot question.

First of all, its for the individual countries to want to join. The ones you have highlighted are a mixed bag of those that have no intentions of joining at the moment (eg UK, Norway), those that might given the right conditions (eg Switzerland, Turkey), those that are currently negotiating to join (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) and those that are probably never going to join given that they're not actually in Europe (eg Morocco, Tunisia).

Once they want to join, there are obviously checks to pass and procedures to follow, these are for individual countries to address and prove over time, it's not a big "here lads do you fancy joining a kickabout" sort of thing. Then the current 27 have to vote on it so its still not a foregone conclusion.

If an amount of countries do join, lets say Albania and Serbia (and don't forget this process generally takes 10 years) and for some reason Ireland are not happy with that, yet didn't vote against the expansion, then Ireland would have to decide if the expansion was enough for them to want to exit the EU, and then start their own exit procedures. This is also likely to take 10 years going by the UK fiasco.

There's a reason why things are as ordered and snail-like in the EU as they are. This is probably (yet another) one thing the UK population didn't take into account in their mad rush to exit and make rich Torys richer - once left, it is not a simple matter to rejoin. This isn't Eurovision where you can be in one year and out the next. It's not like a new pro-EU government can be elected and suddenly it's as you were. Its a long drawn out process and I can see a fairly long line of countries casting a veto against the UK re-joining. They have been particularly nasty to France recently (even more than usual), who probably now think de Gaulle was right to block them in the 60s. And Spain might fancy Gibraltar before considering letting them in again. No doubt there are others. Personally I don't see the UK back in the EU in my lifetime.

21-12-2021 3:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118354749#Comment_118354749

"How could anyone let the nutcase leader of Turkey in to the EU"

Its a good point, not just for Turkey. when the EU admits a country its not just the country as it currently stands, but the country as it might be in decades to come.

Beasty · 21-12-2021 7:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118354714#Comment_118354714

I would throw in a few Caribbean islands and maybe the Seychelles and the Maldives. No harm with the odd exchange programme either....

😀

21-12-2021 10:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118354717#Comment_118354717

I would rather have Russia in the EU than North African countries where they have alien cultures and where slavery still exists in the 21st Century.

Having Russia in the EU would be like keeping your enemies closer and it would add huge military power to the EU if it needed it for whatever reason. I think Russians are more compatible with EU culture than North African countries.

ancapailldorcha · 21-12-2021 10:36pm

Absolutely. I don't really see any reason not to aside from the fact that expansion of the EU's membership isn't going to happen for at least a decade if not multiple decades.

Yurt2 · 22-12-2021 12:36am

Kind of off-topic but can one as an Irish citizen live and work under EU rights in one of those far-flung French holdings like French Guyana or Martinique?

Unlike British dependencies in far-off places, don't the French treat them administratively as if they were Toulouse or Paris?

Richard Hillman · 22-12-2021 12:42am

I just want a free trade and free movement agreement. Like the way it used to be. That's it.

franciscanpunk · 22-12-2021 12:57am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118357696#Comment_118357696

Tbf Turkey and Morocco have both applied at different stages to join the union, tunisia is close to southern europe at least

22-12-2021 1:03am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058223670/would-you-be-on-board-with-this-european-union

Why are you accepting Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania but leaving out other former Yugoslavia states?

22-12-2021 1:03am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359175#Comment_118359175

Parts of spain are in morroco too

franciscanpunk · 22-12-2021 1:03am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359117#Comment_118359117

I believe French Guina should in theory be the same as landing in Paris with your Irish passport and bag full of euro currency. They are part of the EU(unlike say Bermuda or Greenland), well that's my understanding

franciscanpunk · 22-12-2021 1:06am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359197#Comment_118359197

Yeah, Im not sure what Cueta works at all, i think i seen before there was a spain\morrocco border crossing!

come to think of it there is a brazil\France one too

franciscanpunk · 22-12-2021 1:08am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359196#Comment_118359196

Maybe he is unhappy with Slovenia contribution to date :)

22-12-2021 2:33am

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359117#Comment_118359117

France has 13 overseas territories, 5 of them are departments (French Guiana, Guadalupe, Martinique, Reunion and some other one) and as such are treated as part of mainland France.

The other territories are collectivities. You don't need a visa to visit French Polynesia, for example, but you can only stay for three months.

Ten of Swords · 22-12-2021 3:07pm

Thread has been updated with a poll 🤑

22-12-2021 3:15pm

No

Wasn't Algeria previously part of the EU or EEC or whatever it was called back in the day?

22-12-2021 3:57pm

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118361212#Comment_118361212

Yep, they were for a few years until they gained independence from le francais.

TimeUp · 22-12-2021 5:08pm

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118361212#Comment_118361212

Algeria has been vying against European influence ever since they got independence. Europeans can travel visa-free to both Morocco and Tunisia, but not to Algeria, that's why I thought it didn't make sense to include them.

Would you be on board with THIS European Union? (Poll)

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