Now I'd like to clarify before I get into more detail about this, that this thread is not to be used to discuss only specific decisions the EU has made or the now very relevant refugee crisis where the EU has direct influence in. Those are to be discussed in separate threads. This thread is more about discussing how the EU is currently set up and if you agree with it in its foundation.

Personally I dislike the EU with how things currently stand. They're taking away power from member states while giving the actual people of the states little influence to actually do anything. I know something crazy like 40-50% of the laws in Sweden for example is a direct consequence of decisions in the EU and not our own. Most people don't even know just how much of an impact they actually have. Some people who are part of the EU has also openly stated that the end goal would be a "United States of Europe" which is a horrible idea. It would never work considering just how different all the countries are both in terms of language, culture, values, economical standing all aspects of society really. This is something the EU is moving more and more towards without actually asking the EU citizens opinions on. The EU also keeps most information private in stead of maintaining the level of transparency you would expect from a democracy.

If a United States of Europe ever is formed it would certainly collapse pretty quickly. I think as more people realize where the EU really stands, more people will want their countries to leave the EU. Especially those living in more economically stable countries that give a lot of money to the EU because the benefit they gain is fairly small a lot of the time. Really I think the EU should move towards what seemed to be the original intent but which has been twisted. Focused on an economic alliance and promoting common goals on some global issues, like climate change. People need to be given more direct influence, especially the people of the countries that contribute the most. They shouldn't really have any decision making power as far as countries internal affairs go. My hope is that enough of the countries giving more money to the EU than they receive will leave it forcing them to make changes for it to survive. That seems like only way it could actually happen.

That said I'm interested to hear what else other europeans and non europeans may have to say about this, agree or disagree?

I too disagree with the current setup of the EU.

It was amazing back in time, when you didn't need to cross frontiers anymore, everyone united under a common flag and a common currency... However, the moment they decided to enter into internal affairs within each country they basically threw it out of the window.

First of all, the currency. Being all united means that, if one fails, the others must make up for it, all the while the specified one will have to undergo several adjustments as the "higher-ups" decide. This is completely BS. They're not someone to say how another country should be ruled. They want to take action where they can't and shouldn't, simply because they're corrupted by power, and see this as a chance to exhort other countries. The case of Greece is pretty clear of this, and what to say about Spain, where that idiot of Draghi has stated his opinion in everything but what actually matters to the ECB he is (or was?) in charge of.

The cases of the UK and Switzerland are examples of the good decision to take. They're not subject to any laws, simply benefiting from the no-frontiers for trading purposes, and keep their own currency. That's the true EU, that's what it was meant to be, but it ended up again as a place where just one person rules above all others at any level.

It's for reasons like this why I would like Catalonia to be independent. If they take us out of the EU, the least problems we will have. After all, I doubt we can be at a worse situation than right now. All those business brands that say they wouldn't belong to an independent Catalonia will eventually have to admit they're wrong, since Catalonia is by far the most known region of Spain at an international level. After all, it's for this reason why the procedure to obtain the independence started out, because we were forced to in order to survive and aim for the better for our region.

And United States of Europe won't become a reality. The European Parliament won't be a major government ever, since even now the people forming it aren't highly decided by the people or by voting. Furthermore, the internal governments won't let their positions down, and I mean they won't allow to let the power be stolen from them. We could say that European politicians are so corrupt that they're going to save us this time. Not sure if this deserves an applause or a puke.

I honestly believe that the local governments should really start to think on ways they could be independent from the demands of the EU. We were all independent at one time, and things weren't going that bad in most cases, so why should we continue with this setup? Have we made the mistake of being too dependant of them, and have gone to such extents that we cannot survive without them anymore?

EX Palen : Obviously if that was actually put into action people would want their countries to leave EU and would like lead to protests across Europe. Especially considering how that would make the EU likely even more subject to corruption. The whole reason to try and make countries have a common currency is to be interconnected making countries more dependant on each other. This means it poses a serious risk to countries, since if they're leaving the EU they'll still be heavily impacted by their decisions but have less influence. If a country has already accepted the Euro as their currency it would also complicate things even further. Likely reasons a lot of country aren't set on leaving. In particular in the case of the top receivers of financial aid in the EU such as Poland or the most recent members, their entire economies largely depends on the aid they receive from the EU. Thus the chance of them ever leaving even if this was put into motion is relatively small. that's why this would need to be a decision made by the top contributors.

I think the world leaders of these countries need to come to an agreement saying enough is enough. Individual governments can do little except leave the EU in protest, but if several world leaders banded together on this it could force actual change. The EU only retains their power as long as the individual member states agree to it. The problem is that may never happen because it would require an effort outside of the EU to do so.

Yes a united states of europe is a pretty bad idea, even though there are countries that have cultural and linguistic similarities (Netherlands, UK, Germany,   Austria, etc)  It just wouldn't work as there are too many things different about all the cultures, etc.

 my biggest problem with the EU is the cultural clash, like  I said, there are countries with similarities but also big differences.

I mean 24 official languages, damn.

There are just too many differences, plus religion could be a problem too.

(i don't really know how to expand on that, thats really it)

btw are you gonna make a refugee thread?

I don't like the EU from what I've heard about it the UK should leave it.

The EU was a good idea, But now its expanded too far... In my opinion. 

Plus the fact that the UK seems to get screwed over a bit sometimes for no real reason. 

E,G UK shares their incomings/outcomings  = forced to pay a huge sum of money
France refuses to share theirs.. = they end up getting a rebate for hundreds of millions. 

The reason it worked before is because despite the different cultures, there wasn't really a culture clash so to speak. I felt like there was respect between each countries inhabitants and the such... But the more and more countries you add.. the more often disagreements happen and the more the cultural diversity causes an issue. 

Basically the more friends you add to a group the more chance there is of people disliking others and causing a split between the group. 

It become even more irritable when people move countries for a better life, but refuse to try and adapt in their new environment as well. This to me is a small unavoidable issue.. You can't change peoples characters after all. 

Thats all i have to say for now.