[CWOJackson]

You are a devious one.

We have some dear friends from Italy who just visited home this passed summer and were livid over the conditions imposed upon them by the EU. According to them Italy is being forced to destroy some of it's olive crop and buy olives from Greece (you really don't want to mess with their olives).

[MadIvan]

I don't blame the Italians for being angry - there is nothing like Italian olive oil.

Regards, Ivan

[livius]

Actually, a lot of "Italian" olive oil comes from Spain, because it's excellent olive oil, but the Spanish are too disorganized to market it themselves.

However, that said, the EU has managed to make many countries dump their own specialties. The Spanish clementine and citrus market has been undercut by the EU by giving favorable treatment to Morocco. And at EU orders, the Spanish also had to cut down large numbers of their olive trees and rip out their vineyards (to make way for GERMAN wines!).

Granted, Spain and Italy get some funds for infrastructure things (preserving monuments, etc.) from the EU, but I think it doesn't really outweigh the destruction of their own industries and their feeling that they have lost national sovereignty.

I think one thing that we are seeing with the many countries who are joining the US and Britain at this time is a rejection of the German/French control that has been imposed on them through the EU.