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0 pointspjerem6mo ago0 comments

> The EU was supposed to "simplify" things

No. That's false. The EU was supposed to bring peace. The EU "single market" is a mean to achieve peace, not a goal in itself.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

Saline95155mo ago· 2 in thread

The EU started with the coal and steel initiative, which created a common market for those commodities. It was indeed "peace through trade", but mainly trade.

And the goalpost has since moved very far, I don't see really how preventing countries from sending back illegal immigrants or making same-sex marriage has anything to do with European peace.

SideburnsOfDoom5mo ago

> And the goalpost has since moved very far

Actually, the "goalposts" in 1983 already were "an ever closer union"

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solemn_Declaration_on_European...

mytailorisrich5mo ago

The point made is still valid since the EEC was created in 1957 and, before it, the Coal and Steel Community in 1951. Of course it is also unclear what they had in mind with that phrasing, and perhaps it even varied depending on whom you asked: The UK government under Thatcher signed it but I think we can all agree that she wasn't aiming for a federal EU (her famous "No, no, no" speech in 1990 makes it beyond doubt). I think the people at large did not want nation states to disappear within a federal EU, either (and probably still don't).

mytailorisrich5mo ago

The original EEC was to help maintain peace through economic interdependency. Now the EU is very different with ultimate goal of full integration, i.e. a federal state. The single market is a step, the single currency is another step, EU Parliament, tax rules, now possibly defence matters, etc. Step by step but always in the same direction.

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