GoranZ wrote:UK is not Greece and will never be Greece. So threats you are openly proclaiming here wont work as easily as you say on UK.
As you said not 'as easily'. But Europe would still be able to hold a firm hand over the UK.
GoranZ wrote:If you didn't noticed but the British are not very happy in the marriage in EU, so instead working out the problems you threaten, first about Commonwealth, then about internal EU market, but you forget 1 very basic economical principle. TRADING PARTNERS SHOULD BE TREATED FAIRLY. That is if you like to have trading partners.
I presume since UK is giving Commonwealth nations privileges in EU, I presume(I havent checked it) it is giving EU nations privileges in Commonwealth market also. And things to be more interesting Commonwealth market has GDP(PPP) of $14.623 trillion, while EU market has GDP(PPP) of $18.124 trillion(or $15.634 trillion without UK) but growth rate in Commonwealth market is much higher then ~0% in EU.
Even consideration for threatening to Commonwealth market would choke EU. Think little bit before you post your threats.
What should be, often isn't. It's not as if the UK hasn't acted the same way in its own history. Using its power to treat others unfairly.
The UK also has very limited means to provide privileges to the commonwealth market. All trade treaties with non-EU states have to be agreed upon by the entire EU. It is the EU that has allowed the UK to receive privileges concerning the commonwealths. But the UK, spoiled as it is, and nostalgic to its former empire keeps asking too many exceptional treatments.
And I'm not talking about threathening the commonwealth market. I'm talking about the UK in specific, not all commonwealth nations. The others could easily shift their offices and trading connections to the rest of europe, which is precisely the point I'm making.
GoranZ wrote:Pedro before you go any deeper into your fantasy... UK exports into EU as much as EU exports into UK, you simply cant expect that they wont retaliate.
YOU WON'T GET ANYWHERE WITH VINDICTIVE RETALIATION
Irrelevant. As I mentioned before the UK is less important to the EU than the EU is important to the UK. There are differences of scale. 50% of the UK's exports are to the rest of the EU, exports from the rest of the EU to the UK are much much smaller. The same goes for imports.
GoranZ wrote:Although I can see the exact numbers from the graph you posted I can see that Belgium is receiving much more then it is giving. I guess you are not that rich.
Most of that money goes to the city of Brussels. The EU pays for all of its own expenditures and costs, which in Brussels would end up in the pockets of belgians. Perk of being the capital of the EU.
GoranZ wrote:UK is giving a lot comparing to what is is taking...
Here are the numbers for Croatia for 2014: EU spent 215.0 M€, Croatia contributed 226.8 M€.
source:
How is the EU budget spent?P.S. After all this talk about how democratic EU plan to act against members that want to leave it, I presume our non European friends(primarily
mrswdk) will be quite surprised if not disappointed from EU.
And that is the reason I'm saying that European dream is dying(if it is not dead already).
I never said, the EU was already planning all of this(it's possible, but nobody except politicians can know that for sure). These are all
risks. The UK should firmly assess whether the
potential gains outweigh the
potential risks. In my opinion, they don't.
Sure some of these are self-evident. For instance concerning car-importations, EVERY NON-EU NATION pays 12% import tariffs, unless special deals are made(which for most tradingpartners is not the case). So yes, it's a given the UK will have to face tariffs. But that doesn't mean the EU planned these to punish the UK. These laws are already in place.
And the european dream is troublesome depending on what country you're talking about. Even the germans know full well it would be utterly stupid to give up on the european dream.
Especially considering that large parts of the european dream have already been succesful. Never in history has such a vast majority of the european continent been at peace. Never in history has european cooperation been so extensive. Never in history have european cultures been so close to each other as they are today. Sure there are still a lot of differences and disagreements, but that doesn't mean the dream is dead. A lot of progress has been made.
In the context of history, europe is doing pretty well.