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To: Rurudyne

Depends on the leadership in Berlin.

Remember Jean Monnet’s words about the EU being “forged in crises”. They’ve always thought like this and even planned for it. They deliberately made the euro currency into one that would cause a crisis; same with the “refugee” debacle. A strong leader getting in there could turn things around very rapidly; the problem is the long-standing left-wing ideology that they adhere to being carried to the extreme.

Heseltine thinking that the UK could continue to influence the EU from within after all the years of not doing so, and even being overruled when attempting to do so, means he does not understand the EU at a fundamental level.


8 posted on 03/25/2017 9:27:12 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai
...thinking that the UK could continue to influence the EU from within after all the years of not doing so, and even being overruled when attempting to do so...

That's rather a sweeping generalisation, and it hasn't always been the case. There's been no shortage of times in the past when other EU countries, particularly France during the Blair years, were complaining that the UK had too much influence rather than too little.

It's impossible to quantify, of course, not least because about 90% of Council of Ministers decisions are arrived at by consensus without a vote. But you can point to the various EU measures which originated in existing UK national legislation or which were promoted by British Commissioners (in areas such as farm animal health, industrial health and safety etc.), and British Commissioners have occupied some of the most influential posts in the Commission (Mandelson Trade, Patten External Relations, Jenkins and Kinnock President and Vice-President etc.)

It's certainly true than in recent years on the occasions when there has been a vote in the CoM, the UK has been on the losing side more often than any other member state. But that was very different before 2009 - which was again the period when there were those complaints about excessive British influence...

23 posted on 03/25/2017 1:12:30 PM PDT by Winniesboy
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