Originally posted by Stunaep
1) Yes, only a good deal of those standards were made *after* the decisions to join the EU were made, signed, and delivered. Same thing as with vyper's problem - once you're in, there's pretty much nothing you can do, if the EU screws you over.
2) Well, actually, there is, most of the more stupid limits can safely be ignored (I'd like to see the bloke who comes to check, if we've renamed our 2.5% milk to "a milky drink", or some such stupidity).
3) Same with, for example, the Euro. Swedes were given the option to choose whether they want the Euro or not. We? Our politicians don't have the spine to hold a referendum. So they simply take it matter-of-factly.
4) But don´t get me wrong here, I'm still pro-EU. It'll definately enrich the cultural diversity of Europe, even if it messes up the life quality here in Estonia for a few years. And this at least gives us some degree of certainty, that the russians won't just come in 5 years and screw us over (with their "attack and liberate the neighboring countries that treat russians badly" statement they've made and all), and travelling certainly becomes easier. To me it's choosing between a bad option, and a mediocre option, with the possiblility of becoming a good option.
1) No. There's been additions, but the goals are pretty clear, and so it's pretty clear to guess how the exigences will evolve. The UE has not been defined right after all those countries decided to join, you know.
2) I don't know anything about that, to be honest
. I con't care less anyway, that's just butt ****ing flies. There's more anoying deals, believe me ( You know somebody working in the... don't know in english, any job that has to do with building buildings ), or public recreation. Check the safety requirements. I know they're important, but there's ines not to cross, when overdone requirements threaten the future of said company/association/whatever. THAT is more annoying. Believe me, some are really crazy and stupid.
3) Well, even if you say so, the Euro is a good thing, the strongest currency nowadays, btw. I just don't get people who are against it.
4) I'm pro euro too, to an extent. That aside, the main fact that many people don't really get is that the UE stuff is/will be a pain for many years to come. Because that's a long process endeavour. It can't be perfect from the begining, and to get a working thing, yo HAVE to make choices that will benefit the UE setup, but will make people unhappy.
I'll take the France exemple, coz that's the only one I know. France is a special case, much like Germany. Because we have a strong part of our economy based on farm products ( cheese, butcher's meat, stuff like that, which is massively exportated ), we kind of suffer a lot from many of the EU decisions. On the other hand, like Germany, we're kind of a leading country of the EU, and we often enforce our own politics over the EU ones. For exemple, the government we have now is working a lot on cleaning the social and economical problems we have ( clearing debts, stuff like that ). And there's very drastic decisions made that don't please many french people ( that's new to me, to be honest, coz usually, french politicians suck up to people to stay in their positions as long as it is possible, which leads to stuff getting worse, and worse ). All that costs a lot, so we don't
exactly meet the EU requirements for annual budget balances and alike ( by "not exactly", I mean we're completly off
). But wether they like it or not, they can't say much, after all
The general consensus here is that EU objectives should be adapted to the country and the times. If we were to follow the directives to the letter, France economical situation would only get worse. The EU deal works fine for an economicaly sane country. Which is not the case right now for about all the members of the Union.
All that to say that you can't expect things to get brighter right away, you can't expect, maybe, any good outcome out of this for the time being. It's a long due process that will probably disgust most people, but I do believe it's going the right way, we just have to be patient.
