J
jmy
Guest
Jungle, I didn‘t say every EU member was equal, I said that the EU is made up of many "largely equal" states.
Consider the following facts and compare them with the North American situation: the UK, France and Italy have almost identical populations and GDPs (~60M and 1.2 - 1.5 trillion, respectively); Germany does have a much larger population and economy than any other EU member, but is very sensitive to the fact that it was the chief antagonist of two of the most horrific wars Europe (not to mention the rest of the world) has ever seen: they don‘t throw that extra weight around and generally take a backseat in EU political leadership.
Other nations, such as the Netherlands, have a great deal of sway in areas such as agricultural policy. The central bank is located in Frankfurt am Main but the major financial markets are in London; the European Parliament and Commission are in Brussels, but the Court of Justice is in Luxembourg and the Presidency of the Council of the European Union rotates amongst the member states (Spain currently holds the position).
Other major EC institutions are spread elsewhere throughout Europe. No one nation "controls" the EU politically, economically, militarily, culturally or otherwise. The Irish are not drowning in a sea of bad French reality shows any more than Italy dictates Austria‘s monetary policy or Britain controls Sweden‘s automotive industry.
Incidentally, the EU has a method of agricultural subsidies from richer to poor states much like our own provincial equalization payment system. Given the predominance of ‘states‘ rights‘ in the U.S. Constitution, I can‘t imagine any similar scheme receiving much consideration in a North American model.
The point to all my hot air is that power is much more distributed in the EC than it could or would ever be here in North America. I think we need to think long and hard about the implications of institutional integration - something that seems to be extremely popular in the Bush administration and only slightly less so in Ottawa since September 11.
Of course, even without an EC-style integration where do we draw the line? We have NAFTA, which harmonizes much of our trade and economic policy. Debates about dollarization (pegging the C$ to the US$ or simply replacing it with the US$ altogether) are already taking place. So are North American defence schemes and continental border controls. The CF already trains extensively with US Forces. U.S. courts frequently assert jurisdiction in Canada and U.S. statutes are frequently recognized and complied with by companies in Canada that are afraid of possible negative judicial or economic consequences south of the border. One of the biggest and most contentious debates of the last few years concerns the so-called ‘brain drain‘ of the best and the brightest Canadians heading south... Some days, it seems as if we are the 51st state in everything, but name.
JMY
Consider the following facts and compare them with the North American situation: the UK, France and Italy have almost identical populations and GDPs (~60M and 1.2 - 1.5 trillion, respectively); Germany does have a much larger population and economy than any other EU member, but is very sensitive to the fact that it was the chief antagonist of two of the most horrific wars Europe (not to mention the rest of the world) has ever seen: they don‘t throw that extra weight around and generally take a backseat in EU political leadership.
Other nations, such as the Netherlands, have a great deal of sway in areas such as agricultural policy. The central bank is located in Frankfurt am Main but the major financial markets are in London; the European Parliament and Commission are in Brussels, but the Court of Justice is in Luxembourg and the Presidency of the Council of the European Union rotates amongst the member states (Spain currently holds the position).
Other major EC institutions are spread elsewhere throughout Europe. No one nation "controls" the EU politically, economically, militarily, culturally or otherwise. The Irish are not drowning in a sea of bad French reality shows any more than Italy dictates Austria‘s monetary policy or Britain controls Sweden‘s automotive industry.
Incidentally, the EU has a method of agricultural subsidies from richer to poor states much like our own provincial equalization payment system. Given the predominance of ‘states‘ rights‘ in the U.S. Constitution, I can‘t imagine any similar scheme receiving much consideration in a North American model.
The point to all my hot air is that power is much more distributed in the EC than it could or would ever be here in North America. I think we need to think long and hard about the implications of institutional integration - something that seems to be extremely popular in the Bush administration and only slightly less so in Ottawa since September 11.
Of course, even without an EC-style integration where do we draw the line? We have NAFTA, which harmonizes much of our trade and economic policy. Debates about dollarization (pegging the C$ to the US$ or simply replacing it with the US$ altogether) are already taking place. So are North American defence schemes and continental border controls. The CF already trains extensively with US Forces. U.S. courts frequently assert jurisdiction in Canada and U.S. statutes are frequently recognized and complied with by companies in Canada that are afraid of possible negative judicial or economic consequences south of the border. One of the biggest and most contentious debates of the last few years concerns the so-called ‘brain drain‘ of the best and the brightest Canadians heading south... Some days, it seems as if we are the 51st state in everything, but name.
JMY
