Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
If Poland and Spain are going to take a political, social, and or an economic hit by being in the EU the should opt not to join.
Erm, Spain is already in the EU (has been for about 20 years).
Andy
Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
If Poland and Spain are going to take a political, social, and or an economic hit by being in the EU the should opt not to join.
Originally posted by: Fencer128
Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
If Poland and Spain are going to take a political, social, and or an economic hit by being in the EU the should opt not to join.
Erm, Spain is already in the EU (has been for about 20 years).
Andy
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
So what if Poland is a poor country and going to be a new member of the EU? Again, that was known when they were accepted into the EU and the voting system was agreed upon with that in mind. Again, you reap what you sow. Why should these other countries now back out of an AGREEMENT? And now they're trying to paint Spain/Poland as the bad guys - when the blame can be equally.
Originally posted by: Strk
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
So what if Poland is a poor country and going to be a new member of the EU? Again, that was known when they were accepted into the EU and the voting system was agreed upon with that in mind. Again, you reap what you sow. Why should these other countries now back out of an AGREEMENT? And now they're trying to paint Spain/Poland as the bad guys - when the blame can be equally.
The only reason I continue to bring up Poland and Spain's financial situation is that they will be putting a large strain on the EU's funds, which will limit what the EU can do. Since they will be putting such a strain on those funds, they should not have such a problem with the lack of importance. Sure, overtime they will grow, but it could take several decades.(Spain has been in for 2 decades and is still quite poor when compared to the other nations)
Originally posted by: Strk
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
So what if Poland is a poor country and going to be a new member of the EU? Again, that was known when they were accepted into the EU and the voting system was agreed upon with that in mind. Again, you reap what you sow. Why should these other countries now back out of an AGREEMENT? And now they're trying to paint Spain/Poland as the bad guys - when the blame can be equally.
The only reason I continue to bring up Poland and Spain's financial situation is that they will be putting a large strain on the EU's funds, which will limit what the EU can do. Since they will be putting such a strain on those funds, they should not have such a problem with the lack of importance. Sure, overtime they will grow, but it could take several decades.(Spain has been in for 2 decades and is still quite poor when compared to the other nations)
Originally posted by: charrison
one house that has representative determined by population, then another house with an equal number representatives per country.
It seems simple.
Originally posted by: MovingTarget
Originally posted by: charrison
one house that has representative determined by population, then another house with an equal number representatives per country.
It seems simple.
Has this been proposed yet? It seems a fair compromise and it has been proven to work quite well over here. Seems to me that going only by sheer population sets up a "tyrrany of the majority" situation, which the smaller nations would be concerned about. The rights and voice of the minority populations/countries should be protected in some way. I wonder what would be said about such a proposal within the EU?
Haha"Let's talk about football and women," Mr Berlusconi suggested. And turning to the four-times married Mr Schroeder, "Gerhard, why don't you start."
"I don't know much about women," Mr Schroeder apparently replied, looking sourly at his asparagus risotto. "But I thought you knew something about food."
Originally posted by: Dari
Why don't we let the Euros settle their differences with another pointless war?
Originally posted by: freegeeks
Originally posted by: AndrewR
Originally posted by: freegeeks
Poland and Spain better tone it down.
GB, France, Germany and the Benelux countries have made it clear that they are the biggest contributors to the EU budget and that Spain and Poland are on the receiving end.
IMO it's only fair that larger countries with larger populations have more voting power then the smaller countries. It's only Spain and Poland that want almost equal votes.
You ignored the entire article, freegeeks. Poland and Spain were apparently willing to negotiate while France adamantly refused to do so in order to push their two speed Europe agenda. Regardless, Miller was absolutely incapable of doing otherwise (insisting on Nice) because of domestic politics.
Hence, the future failure of the EU.
not true
this rumour was started by Berlusconi, one of many f*ck ups during the 6 month Italian presidency of the EU
Romano Prodi made it clear that it was Spain and Poland who didn't want to move an inch
Originally posted by: Strk
Originally posted by: MovingTarget
Originally posted by: charrison
one house that has representative determined by population, then another house with an equal number representatives per country.
It seems simple.
Has this been proposed yet? It seems a fair compromise and it has been proven to work quite well over here. Seems to me that going only by sheer population sets up a "tyrrany of the majority" situation, which the smaller nations would be concerned about. The rights and voice of the minority populations/countries should be protected in some way. I wonder what would be said about such a proposal within the EU?
2 things.
First, we are talking about the Council of Ministers, this is not the legislative body.(although they are the more powerful group right now)
Second, the Parliament is, at the moment, a relatively weak legislative body. They can vote on various things, but they don't have much weight behind what they do. It is currently unicameral and based on population.(current max is 87 people per nation, unless that is changing with Nice too) As far as a bicameral legislature is concerned, those countries are quite aware of what they are. Many of them have one, although none have an upper house quite as powerful as our senate.(closest might be the bundesrat in Germany when state issues are concerned)
As far as Poland and Spain are concerned, you know how I feel. Unless there is something I'm missing(I'm only dealing with the votes in the CoM, mind you) I still don't see how they feel short-handed. They are receiving 27 votes, that's 2 less than Germany, which has more than twice the population. I guess I have to just read up more on the progress of the EU I suppose.
this about sums up 90% of the posts on this topic...I did not read the article