Because if the EU tried to force countries into single compliance, there would no end of "EU is trampling national interests" and similar screaming.

It's an unwinnable situation. Again, EU-level politics keep assuming everyone (corporations and states) are adults. Unfortunately, everyone are just a bunch of screaming, scheming petulant children.

▲

0x_rs an hour ago | parent | next [-]

>Again, EU-level politics keep assuming everyone (corporations and states) are adults. Unfortunately, everyone are just a bunch of screaming, scheming petulant children.

One in four MEPs are involved in scandals [0] ranging from harassment to organized crime and corruption. The European Parliament also remains a free out-of-jail card through abuse of parliamentary immunity, and they do abuse it [1]. EU politics is a circus.

0. https://archive.is/neTOG

1. https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-parliament-accused-overre...

	▲	sajithdilshan an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		One of the best example is Ursula Von der Leyen. She was sent from Berlin to EU by Angela Merkle because when she was the defence minister of Germany under Merkle’s government there was a huge scandal of offering contracts (https://www.euractiv.com/news/von-der-leyen-admits-mistakes-...) She was sent to EU so she can do less harm in the future, but the irony is that she became the head of EU.
	▲	p_l an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		MEPs in many countries do not actually have immunity. However, the bigger issue is that european parliament is treated in many countries as essentially dumping ground between national elections.

▲

philipallstar 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> there would no end of "EU is trampling national interests" and similar screaming

To just call this "screaming" is to completely dismiss a real and huge problem. The EU is the idea that countries should fuse into economic areas, but the countries are also individual still. Of course there's a lot of friction.

For example, because Greece was in the Euro, they couldn't inflate their currency to compensate for the fact that they gradually outsourced more and more work to Germany, until they had nothing left and hit a financial crisis because their government couldn't borrow more money. That's not mindless screaming.

▲

Yizahi 18 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Do you realize that your example actually counters your point? The Greece's example illustrates that a misbehaving minority shouldn't have an outsized influence on the majority, which is a correct thing to aim for, I completely agree with you on that. But the current EU arrangement actually allows minority entities to veto majority's initiatives and improvements, exactly because EU is not fully federated. 1 member country can screech and blackmail 26 other members for any arbitrary reason, and they all must comply with this minority's ultimatum. If EU was a federation, majority would simply outvote any obstructionists.

▲

troupo an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

So you've described Greece as a bunch of scheming petulant children.

"Our plan to be inaccountable didn't work, so we'll try a different scheme instead".

And yes, it's a huge problem. That's why I called the situation unwinnable.

▲

graemep an hour ago | parent | next [-]

They could neither fix the problem with the policy tools a country with its own currency would have, nor did they have the automatic support from a central budget a region or state of a country would have.

	▲	nradov 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Greece could have fixed their problems by cutting spending and collecting more taxes (not necessarily higher taxes, but actually collecting the taxes that were owed). Currency inflation was never necessary.

▲

philipallstar 23 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> So you've described Greece as a bunch of scheming petulant children.

Can you quote where I did that, please?

▲

carlosjobim an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

No, the Greeks were cool and calculating, turning an inflating fake fiat currency into hard assets like real estate, while not working or producing anything.

The introduction of the Euro was the start signal for each country to try to inflate as much as they can for their own benefit - since the first inflator gets the best value out of the currency. Idiots are left holding paper currency worth less and less each day. Having to work harder and harder in a never ending spiral.

	▲	pjc50 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		The Euro had a much better set of inflation controls than most of the previous European currencies. Especially the lire.

▲

Xelbair an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Including EC, and MEP themselves.