Its official

The Eu IS 50 years old

so what has it achieved in that 50 years?

bbc news
European Union leaders have joined a gala concert in Berlin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bloc, which was founded by the 1957 Treaty of Rome.
The concert, conducted by Britain's Sir Simon Rattle, will be followed by dinner for the 27 leaders at German President Horst Koehler's residence.

Berliners will also join events at city clubs and museums throughout the night.

A leader's summit on Sunday will endorse a statement emphasising the EU's achievements and challenges ahead.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will use the event to relaunch the debate on the EU's stalled constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

Hi Bod, how about 50 years of peace in Europe, no border controls, same currency (min uk), UE citizens are free to live and work where they want and lots of other good things.

Originally posted by bodrul
The Eu IS 50 years old

so what has it achieved in that 50 years?
...

It´s not ENTIRELY easy to say what exactly the EU has achieved and whatnot, or to exactly quantify the influence of the EU in statistics and figures. Some obvious things would be that it provides a standing representation for (virtually) all of Europe, instead of the fractioned alliances of the past centuries, making it the first ever supranational governing body for, what we call, a common culture zone. Or that the EU integration has not only erased dangerous conflicts between its members, but made war between meber states more or less impossible due to inter-dependency alone.

And of course the common monetary policy (which goes beyond the Euro): that the Euro was not introduced by all members is not even a sign of weakness, its a sign of how truly outstanding its existence is in the first place - happening against such resilient objections of important members. Another incredible aspect is the transfer of money between the EU states, as it is a bold move (at least for the net payers ) for one state to give money away to a poorer state - though its quite clear that this financial aid will result in backflow of cash via exports, its hard to quantify and, therefor, to justify in front of the own, sometimes short-sighted public. Actually that was and is a great risk for politicans, which is one of the reasons why I object to "automatically" criticise EU politicians for anything they do - because the other option would be to only follow populistic aims.

But then there is the big chunk of developments that would not have happened without the EU or at least considerably later in time. This includes for example the Schengen treaty (the "free borders") which is not an EU measure, but nevertheless was motivated by it. Or the common educational strategy which (once the kinks are worked out) will enable students and alumni alike to move freely between EU nations because their effort made in one nation will be 100% recognized in another nation. Heck, even EU standardization can be counted as a big achievement, because for example a toilet seat manufactured in Spain will fit on a polish toilet now.

Again, many of these achievements are not unthinkable WITHOUT the EU. But think about how long it might have taken the Wright brothers to build the Flyer when there hadn´t been an Otto Lilienthal to perfect gliding aerodynamics or the numerous advancements in combustion engines before.

What a loaded question?

For some countries, The EU has had a huge impact. Ireland is reaping the benefit of EU investment but those who are net funders of the EU, I am not sure.

And this open travel, what open travel? When I travel from the UK to Europe, I have to go via passport control when I arrive so no open travel.

Single currency. Many of my friends in Europe now wish to return to their old currencies.

The UK should have been in at the start. And Yes I believe the UK had the chance?

For me, today, I see the EU trying to take too much control. We do not even have a single military command in the EU, yet the EU wants to dicate what chocolate is.