First of all, I would like to welcome anyone who visits this blog, which I have opened with the purpose of debating issues regarding the European Union. I invite any free citizen to reply and start a constructive debate!
I deliberately chose a provoking title for this first post. Please allow me to explain myself. I think it is reasonable to believe that the EU as it "started out", the European Economic Community, was a brilliant idea. It allowed free trade between free countries, after a devastating war which literally tore Europe to pieces. Slowly, though, the governments of Europe decided that an economic treaty was not enough. After the Maastricht Treaty, at the beginning of the '90s, European countries were more and more interconnected, in matters of economy, justice, foreign affairs, etc. What is now left of a single country's sovereignty? In what matters is a country free to decide? It's all well until the European Union allows businesses and people to trade freely around the continent, but when a small group of people (quite ignored by European voters, frankly..) decide what other 27 countries should do, I'm not sure whether we're talking about a democracy anymore. If a country wants to keep its traditions it can't because the European Commission of Human Rights decides it can't (i.e. the crucifix case in Italy). Must we all be the same?
A company isn't even allowed to have market power anymore (i.e. Microsoft, fined in a competition case). If the EU believes in the market, it should let the market regulate itself. These are just a few cases I came up with.
My question is very simple: would it be that bad if the EU went back to being a simple trade community of free countries? Would it be that bad if all this european bureaucracy disappeared?
In the next post, I'll raise issues regarding the Euro, so stay tuned!
