Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Bringing Britain Back into Europe: Macron's Europe 2.0 Plan - TLDR News" video.

  1. I think reforms of the EU are needed in many key areas, especially with vetoes and majority voting, as I can't see the EU expending with more members when you have Hungary and Poland braking EU rules and where it only takes one member to hold the rest of them up, something that would get worse with more members. Also, I think more integration are needed in military, security and energy matters, what's going on in Ukraine should be a wake-up call for Europeans that we need to band together to protect our political, economic and social interest, especially in a world with a rising China and the US still growing. Basically, if we Europeans don't band together, it's going to be harder to protect our interest which could weaken us and lower our standards, it also allows others like Russia, the US and China to play EU countries off each other for their own interest, something they've all shown a willingness to do at one point or another. So the question is, do we wake up now and do the reforms needed or do we wait till things get so bad that the EU becomes unworkable that change is needed anyway? Personally, I think a multi speed EU is needed, just like we have with the Euro where countries that want to integrate more, can do so without the rest holding them to ransom, this is something I think the EU should have done a long time ago and I also think it's time we see more democracy on the surface in the EU, so the EU Commission and President should be merged and be directly elected with more powers going directly to the European Parliament, the Euro Zone and Schengen has shown that you only need a few countries onboard to get the ball moving, others will likely join as they see it working in time, that's what the EU should do in other areas. The eastern European countries are actually proving the point that they fear being left behind in a multi speed Europe, so their logic is to hold back everyone else lol, in fact, this is the main reason why a multi speed EU is needed so core countries that want to integrate, can do so, overtime as other countries get reassured by that integration, they might want to join, either way, the countries that do integration will have more advantages but it seems crazy that the EU countries should be held to ransom by any one country, something that will only get worse with more countries joining the EU and the veto. If the EU countries really want to compete with the US and a rising China, they need to wake up to the reality of how the world is shaping up, the alternative is that Europeans will get pushed aside in the new world order and decline, because the current EU isn't going to compete with the US and a rising China of the future, so change is needed, so lets see how bad the hold out countries will let things go before they wake up to that reality.
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  2. Free trade can only work with a lot of political and economic integration, basically harmonizing a lot of laws, rules and regulations like we see with the single market and custom union. Without the harmonizing of rules, no country in their right mind would have full on free trade with no restrictions when a country can change the rules to have an advantage at the expense of another, that's where the EU single market and custom union solves that problem by harmonizing the rules at an EU level for all members.
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