Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "European Political Community - Success or Failure?" video.

  1. It really depends on what side of the Brexit fence you're on, if you're a Brexiteer, this is a real bad idea because the entire idea is to foster closer relations to the EU for those countries, a lot of which actually want to join the EU, the more countries that have closer relations to the EU and join longer term, the weaker the UK's position in Europe and the world will be. But if you're a Remainder, this could be great news, it allows the UK to repair relations, have closer ties to the EU and longer term, opens up the door for UK EU membership, Brexiteers have been trying to distant themselves from anything EU related, this forum or whatever it's called is designed to create closer relations with none EU members in Europe, the only concern many of them have is that it doesn't become a second class EU when a lot of those countries want in the EU. If the EU makes this work, this could give a lot more hope to countries that want to join the EU to do the reforms needed to join, hope goes a long way in doing changes needed and the biggest problem the EU has had with them is that it's kept a lot of them on the waiting list for year which is having a negative impact on some of those countries. I look at this as a stepping stone for counties not in the EU that want to join the EU someday, hence why many have complained that it could hold many in the waiting room that want to join the EU. As for the UK government, I don't get the impression that the Tories have any interest in the success of this, but the UK not going when 40 others have gone, wouldn't do the UK's position any favours and would just help to isolate us more, basically, I think the Tories just went to it to scoop it out and to see what other none EU countries are thinking of it. So like I said, depending on what side of the fence you're on, it can be seen as a good or bad thing and personally, I think it's a good thing as it can open up the door for closer relations but in any case, it's way too early to know if it will be a success or not and it might just fizzle out.
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  2. It's way too early to say, but I suspect it could be bad news for the UK Brexiteers, the entire idea around this is to bring countries closer to the EU in one form or another with the aim of being a bridge to EU membership for many of the countries. Think of it a bit like giving hope for countries wanting to join the EU but are not ready to join or are some time off from joining, giving them that step in-between can improve relations and help those countries that want to join to do the reforms needed sooner rather than later, Turkey is a prime example, because they were doing the reforms so slowly and had to wait so long, they more or less give up on the idea of joining the EU, if there were a few more steps in-between joining the EU, Turkey might have been on a different path now as giving the people hope can go a long way. But say this does take off, a lot of the countries outside the EU will likely want to join it at some point, creating closer relations is a sure way of helping that, that could become a major problem for the Brexiteers in the UK that are trying to distant themselves from anything EU related, because the more countries that have closer relations to the EU or join it, the more isolated the UK's position in Europe will be. To be honest, the EU should be a tier or multispeed EU, it's not easy to get all countries to move along at the same pace as others that want to move faster and because of that, you have countries that are trying to hold back the others and personally, I think the Euro Zone is the real core EU, the countries in that are more likely to want to make the EU work and to integrate in many areas, it's just a question of what form it takes. The ones that are not in the Euro tend to be countries that are dragging their feet, don't want to integrate or are in the EU for their own ends, Poland and Hungary are prime examples of that and I think the EU countries that want to move ahead, should be able, so Euro Zone countries, now I know none Euro Zone countries like Hungary and Poland will complain about that because it would shift the balance of power away from them and more towards the Euro Zone countries, it would also isolate the countries that are not in the Euro Zone, they very likely know that if the Euro Zone countries do integrate more, it will make them more powerful and they become the more focal point of the EU, so even countries that are not part of it won't like it out of fear of being left behind.
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