I’m not sure this is a good thing for Canada.

The EU feels like an incomplete experiment. Not strong enough to actually be a single market. But still able to create additional annoying regulations on top of nation level ones.

The EU needs to be truly Federal to succeed economically. That might create uniform regulations with more uniform regulations and actually make Europe competitive.

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graemep 13 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> The EU needs to be truly Federal to succeed economically. That might create uniform regulations with more uniform regulations and actually make Europe competitive.

I agree, but there are huge barriers to taking this step. You need a common identity to create a nation. Americans have one, so do other large nations. The EU does not.

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luckystarr 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Consider: the US is a (somewhat) greenfield project, while the EU is a brownfield refactoring.

These sorts of refactorings take time, even more so if done by "committee". The good thing is that explicit interfaces have to be created thereby (hopefully) increasing adaptability and resilience over time.

	▲	mcv 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The US was greenfield 2 centuries ago. It currently has a lot more technical (political?) debt than the EU. Some reforms are long overdue.

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hilbert42 4 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"But still able to create additional annoying regulations on top of nation level ones."

It seems to me the EU is overburdened with trivial regulations (like regulating the maximum power consumption of domestic vacuum cleaners) rather than prioritizing core issues of its single market, manufacturing, trade, etc.

Trouble is small vested interests hold overly powerful sway over EU-wide policy. The example above is a case in point, individual member states should be able to set their own regulations independently if deemed warranted.

You're correct, annoying regulations are bloating the EU bureaucracy making it lethargic and uncompetitive.

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cbg0 42 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The EU needs to be truly Federal to succeed economically. That might create uniform regulations with more uniform regulations and actually make Europe competitive.

EU already has uniform regulations, what are you talking about? It's also the third largest economy in the world, as uncompetitive as it is.

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jcfrei 34 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

No it does not. There's a lot of gold plating happening at the national level that goes beyond EU regulations. It's EU regulations + 27 national regulations in reality. The EU economies are still too different and the population too unwilling to have a truly US-style single market.

	▲	hhh 8 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		What exactly is the difference between that and 50 states having their own regulations?
	▲	etiennebausson 13 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		You seems to be arguing that a U.S. style single-market would be an improvement. But for whom, people or companies?

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cowboy_henk 38 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

The EU is not a fiscal union. It is also not yet a single capital market.

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lnxg33k1 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am not sure, if I see the example of US as federation, it might work well for corporations only, but people have nothing, uniformity doesn't work because not all populations have the same needs/expectations

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softwaredoug an hour ago | parent [-]

Maybe, but it’s way too difficult to do business in the EU.

Not because I think regulations are bad. But regulations need to be well designed with clears lines on what the Federal / State are allowed to do.

	▲	Epa095 38 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Its hard because its 27 different countries, but they are working on making it less hard. Many startups are made in Europe, but then bought up (often by Americans) or moves to USA when its time to expand outside the single countries boarders. Canada has the same problem. Canada has made it pretty clear that they do not want to be part of the big country south of it, so they will have to find a way to create large companies that stays. Doing this together with a market of 450 million people seems like a good idea.
	▲	_ink_ 38 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		> but it’s way too difficult to do business in the EU. They are working in it: https://www.eu-inc.org/ I have no clue whether that will be a success, but at least they have recognised that problem as well.
	▲	anonzzzies 37 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> but it’s way too difficult to do business in the EU Been doing it for decades. Not a billionaire and not interested in becoming one; in the US I would've been one. But never had issues.

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nickslaughter02 26 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

EU is a failed experiment that must be stopped.

	▲	akie 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		We disagree.